Representative Bureaucracy and Distributional Equity: Addressing the Hard Question

Meier, Kenneth J.; Wrinkle, Robert D.; Polinard, J. L.

doi:10.2307/2647552

Cited by 301 publications

(288 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…Meier et al (1999Meier et al ( : 1030 explicitly state three ways that minority teachers might affect minority test scores:…”

Section: The Level Of Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The appropriate model depends on the characteristics of the data and any special problems therein (serial correlation, heteroscedasticity, cross-correlations, etc.). Meier et al (1999) include time dummy variables in all models; the point of contention is whether or not they should have included N-1 cross-sectional dummy variables, a fixed effects or least squares dummy variables (LSDV) model (Greene 1997, 616). Fixed effects models are a possible choice in any N x T panel; but as T approaches 1, the costs of the model often exceed its benefits.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Zen and the Art of Policy Analysis: A Response to Nielsen and Wolf

Meier¹,

Eller²,

Wrinkle³

et al. 2001

The Journal of Politics

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We thank George A. Krause and Jeff Gill for helpful comments. All statistical analyses were conducted in STATA and replicated in limdep. All data and documentation to replicate this analysis including the complete STATA output can be found at http://web.polmeth.ufl.edu/ or www-bushschool.tamu.edu/pubman/ Zen and the Art of Policy Analysis: A Response to Nielsen and Wolf AbstractNeilsen and Wolf (N.d.) lodge several criticism of Meier, Wrinkle and Polinard (1999).Although most of the criticisms deal with tangential issues rather than our core argument, their criticisms are flawed by misguided estimation strategies, erroneous results, and an inattention to existing theory and scholarship. Our re-analysis of their work demonstrates these problems and presents even stronger evidence for our initial conclusion-both minority and Anglo students perform better in schools with more minority teachers. 1 Zen and the Art of Policy Analysis: A Response to Nielsen and WolfPolicy analysis is an art not a rote exercise. It requires informed judgement at every step of the process and an understanding of the implications of methodological choices. This exchange illustrates the importance of that art. In "Representative Bureaucracy and Distributional Equity: Addressing the Hard Question" we presented two key findings-in school districts with more minority teachers both minority and Anglo students perform better. We also addressed several interesting but tangential issues including the anomaly of overall test scores, the linearity of the relationships, and how equity and performance were linked. Nielsen and Wolf (N.d.) lodge six specific criticisms of our work:1. The appropriate estimation technique is a fixed effects pooled regression.2. We omitted a key variable, percent Anglo students, in our model. 3.The relationship between minority teachers and student performance is not nonlinear.4. Minorities should be disaggregated into blacks and Latinos; when this is done, there is no relationship between minority teachers and minority student performance.5. The appropriate unit of analysis is the student not the school district.6. Substantively weighted least squares (SWLS) is used incorrectly.Even if Nielsen and Wolf were correct (and they are not), only one of these criticisms bear on our key findings; the others focus on peripheral issues. Our response demonstrates that Nielsen and Wolf are incorrect in assertions 1 through 5 and misinterpret assertion 6 because they failed to read the relevant work in this area. We deal with each criticism in order. The Use of Fixed Effects Models 2Nielsen and Wolf contend that we have underspecified models, specifically that based on a Hausman specification test we should have estimated our equations as fixed effects models by including a series of dummy variables to represent the unique characteristics of each individual school district. With a panel data set of dimensions N x T (where N is the number of unique cases and T is the number of time periods), there are a myriad of possible models (Balt...

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“…Meier et al (1999Meier et al ( : 1030 explicitly state three ways that minority teachers might affect minority test scores:…”

Section: The Level Of Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Zen and the Art of Policy Analysis: A Response to Nielsen and Wolf

Meier¹,

Eller²,

Wrinkle³

et al. 2001

The Journal of Politics

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“…Because schools operate in a segmented labor market, female math teachers might simply be better teachers (see Meier, Wrinkle and Polinard 1999).…”

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confidence: 99%

Lipstick and Logarithms: Gender, Institutional Context, and Representative Bureaucracy

et al. 2002

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According to the theory of representative bureaucracy, passive representation among public employees will lead to active representation in bureaucratic outputs. Existing research demonstrates that the link between passive and active representation exists for race but not for sex. Past research on this topic has not, however, taken into account the contextual environment that affects whether sex will translate into gender and lead to active representation in the bureaucracy. In this paper, we create a framework that specifies the conditions that affect whether passive representation results in active representation for sex and then test this framework using the case of education. We find that passive representation of women in education leads to active representation and that the institutional context affects the extent to which this link between passive and active representation occurs.

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“…The first focuses on the representativeness of bureaucracy and the performance of administrative action. Studies in this vein generally seek to demonstrate that the more a bureaucracy is representative of the population, the more likely it is to serve it adequately (Meier et al 1999). The second strand of research concentrates on the legitimacy of the state rather than administrative action.…”

Section: Representative Bureaucracy In Multilingual Statesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Towards a Representative Bureaucracy: Promoting Linguistic Representation and Diversity in the Swiss and Canadian Federal Public Services

Kübler

Kobelt

Andrey³

2013

World Political Science

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Drawing on the concept of representative bureaucracy, this article examines how two multilingual states -Canada and Switzerland -deal with issues related to the participation of different linguistic communities in the federal public service. Following a political mobilization of the linguistic cleavage, strategies to promote multilingualism in the public service have been adopted in both countries. The Canadian strategy focuses on equal treatment of Anglophones and Francophones in the public service. In Switzerland, adequate representation of the linguistic communities is the primary goal. These differences are explained by the characteristics of the linguistic regimes in each of the two countries as well as by the peculiarities of consociational democracy in Switzerland. In both countries, the linguistic origins of public administration staff, overall, mirrors the proportions of the linguistic communities in the wider society. Within administrative units, however, linguistic diversity is hampered by the logics of language rationalization, where minorities are under pressure to communicate in the language of the majority.

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Representative Bureaucracy and Distributional Equity: Addressing the Hard Question

Cited by 301 publications

References 15 publications

Zen and the Art of Policy Analysis: A Response to Nielsen and Wolf

Zen and the Art of Policy Analysis: A Response to Nielsen and Wolf

Lipstick and Logarithms: Gender, Institutional Context, and Representative Bureaucracy

Towards a Representative Bureaucracy: Promoting Linguistic Representation and Diversity in the Swiss and Canadian Federal Public Services

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