Displacing the burden of representation: Engaging with critical Whiteness to expand the theory of representative bureaucracy

Abstract

The theory of representative bureaucracy has provided an important yet limited framework for understanding exclusion in the public sector. This theoretical paper engages with critical approaches to argue for an expanded theory that centers social equity. Close attention to the relationship between the public and nonprofit sectors illuminates how public institutions protect and reproduce White, masculine space by shifting the burden of representation onto racially minoritized public administrators and community-based nonprofit organizations led by and for people of color. An expanded theory will (1) advance an understanding of both sectors as institutional spaces that protect Whiteness and impede full representation and (2) recognize the importance of the labor required to counter inequities and actively represent minoritized constituents.

Keywords:

• Community-based nonprofit organizations
• racial state
• representative bureaucracy
• representative burden
• white institutional space

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Maureen Emerson Feit

Maureen Emerson Feit, PhD, is Assistant Professor of Public Affairs and Nonprofit Leadership at Seattle University.