Suchergebnisse

Representative bureaucracy theory posits that the demographic makeup of a bureaucracy can affect how policy is implemented, especially when bureaucrats engage in "active representation" or behavior that directly advances the interests of a particular group in society. It is often assumed that active representation is motivated by the unique beliefs, convictions, or affinities experienced by bureaucrats holding particular social identities. But few studies of representative bureaucracy have attempted to directly measure the attitudes of bureaucrats, and even fewer studies examine whether such attitudes are meaningfully linked to policy outcomes. This study examines the social identities, self-perceived roles, and political preferences of local school administrators in Texas. The results confirm a link between bureaucratic managers' social identities and distributional policy outcomes, while also suggesting that distinctive bureaucratic attitudes (as observed here) can offer at best a partial explanation for why the social identities of bureaucrats are linked to policy outcomes.

Abstract
Despite burgeoning research on representative bureaucracy theory, there is limited examination of how environmental contexts shape the manner in which the demographic makeup of a bureaucracy is linked to distributional bureaucratic outcomes. Scholars in the field of social psychology, however, have suggested that community-level variation in the pervasiveness of biases against particular social groups helps to explain inequitable outcomes in such diverse settings as education, policing, and health care. Incorporating social psychology research into representative bureaucracy theory, this article examines how community racial biases shape the association between the demographic makeup of an organization's personnel and its bureaucratic outcomes. Using county-level implicit and explicit bias measures that are estimated by multilevel regression and poststratification (MRP) based on a dataset containing more than 1.2 million respondents, we find that more inequitable educational outcomes occur for black students in counties where white residents hold stronger anti-black biases. Our findings also suggest that while black teachers are associated with more favorable outcomes for black students in the zero-sum context of assignment to gifted classes, the association of outcomes with passive representation is more limited in counties with strong racial biases. By accounting for the racial biases exhibited in the communities where both clients and bureaucrats are socially and culturally embedded, this article extends our understanding of how contextual factors shape the nature of bureaucratic representation.

Abstract
In recent years, studies of citizen satisfaction have increasingly relied on the expectancy–disconfirmation model, which highlights the role that expectations play in driving citizen evaluations of government services. But most empirical studies within public administration of the relationship between expectations and satisfaction indicate that expectations have little-to-no net effect on satisfaction. We argue that these results may be largely driven by the weaknesses of existing measurement approaches and inattention in many studies to the distinction between two types of expectations: those about what should happen (normative expectations) versus those about what will happen (predictive expectations). Distinguishing between these two types of expectations is important because they are likely to have different—and perhaps even opposite—effects on satisfaction. We recruited 972 US residents via Amazon's Mechanical Turk to complete a survey vignette experiment and found that normative expectations are strongly (and negatively) related to satisfaction levels, whereas predictive expectations are barely related to satisfaction at all. We also find that comparative performance information generally has a much stronger effect on predictive expectations than on normative expectations. These findings suggest that theories of satisfaction should more consistently distinguish between different types of expectations. Our results also leave us somewhat optimistic about the ability of ordinary residents to follow a reasonable process when assigning normative meaning to performance information.

AbstractSocial distancing is an effective means of containing the spread of COVID‐19, but only if we all participate. Who are the individuals who are least likely to adhere to social distancing recommendations, presently and in the long term? Such knowledge is important for policy makers looking to sustain the public's buy‐in to social distancing. Using survey data from a sample of U.S. residents (n = 1,449), the authors show that some demographic factors (gender, age, race, political party) help predict intent to adhere to social distancing. Yet demographic factors are relatively poor predictors compared with individual attitudes and media diets. Public officials should make efforts to inform and persuade the public of the importance of social distancing, targeting media such as television and radio, where audiences are less likely to currently engage in social distancing or are less likely to envision themselves sustaining strict social distancing for several weeks or months.

Social distancing is an effective means of containing the spread of COVID‐19, but only if we all participate. Who are the individuals who are least likely to adhere to social distancing recommendations, presently and in the long term? Such knowledge is important for policy makers looking to sustain the public's buy‐in to social distancing. Using survey data from a sample of U.S. residents (n = 1,449), the authors show that some demographic factors (gender, age, race, political party) help predict intent to adhere to social distancing. Yet demographic factors are relatively poor predictors compared with individual attitudes and media diets. Public officials should make efforts to inform and persuade the public of the importance of social distancing, targeting media such as television and radio, where audiences are less likely to currently engage in social distancing or are less likely to envision themselves sustaining strict social distancing for several weeks or months ; Social distancing is an effective means of containing the spread of COVID‐19, but only if we all participate. Who are the individuals who are least likely to adhere to social distancing recommendations, presently and in the long term? Such knowledge is important for policy makers looking to sustain the public's buy‐in to social distancing. Using survey data from a sample of U.S. residents (n = 1,449), the authors show that some demographic factors (gender, age, race, political party) help predict intent to adhere to social distancing. Yet demographic factors are relatively poor predictors compared with individual attitudes and media diets. Public officials should make efforts to inform and persuade the public of the importance of social distancing, targeting media such as television and radio, where audiences are less likely to currently engage in social distancing or are less likely to envision themselves sustaining strict social distancing for several weeks or months

The COVID-19 pandemic is a major challenge facing societies around the world. Citizen engagement in "social distancing" is a key containment measure for curtailing the spread of the virus. But what kind of information should governments use for encouraging social distancing compliance? Using data from a pre-registered survey experiment among US residents (n = 1,502), we examine how five distinct COVID-19 information cues—which each appeal to prosocial motivation and empathy in varying degree—affect people's willingness to social distance. We find no significant differences across experimental conditions in terms of (a) the duration that respondents are willing to maintain social distancing, (b) intended social distancing behavior, or (c) COVID-19-related attitudes and beliefs. Our findings should not necessarily discourage decision-makers from priming prosocial motivation and empathy as means for promoting social distancing, but they do suggest a current need for more engaging medium than simple textual messages for such appeals. ; The COVID-19 pandemic is a major challenge facing societies around the world. Citizen engagement in "social distancing" is a key containment measure for curtailing the spread of the virus. But what kind of information should governments use for encouraging social distancing compliance? Using data from a pre-registered survey experiment among US residents (n = 1,502), we examine how five distinct COVID-19 information cues—which each appeal to prosocial motivation and empathy in varying degree—affect people's willingness to social distance. We find no significant differences across experimental conditions in terms of (a) the duration that respondents are willing to maintain social distancing, (b) intended social distancing behavior, or (c) COVID-19-related attitudes and beliefs. Our findings should not necessarily discourage decision-makers from priming prosocial motivation and empathy as means for promoting social distancing, but they do suggest a current need for more engaging medium than simple textual messages for such appeals.

Public administration scholars are beginning to pay more attention to the problem of common source bias, but little is known about the approaches that applied researchers are adopting as they attempt to confront the issue in their own research. In this essay, we consider the various responses taken by the authors of six articles in this journal. We draw attention to important nuances of the common measurement issue that have previously received little attention and run a set of empirical analyses in order to test the effectiveness of several proposed solutions to the common-source-bias problem. Our results indicate that none of the statistical remedies being used by public administration scholars appear to be reliable methods of countering the problem. Currently, it appears as though the only reliable solution is to find independent sources of data when perceptual survey measures are employed. Adapted from the source document.