Representative bureaucracy theory stresses the importance of representativeness of bureaucracies in enhancing government performance, social equity, and democratic principles. Symbolic representation, the newest iteration of... [ view full abstract ]
Representative bureaucracy theory stresses the importance of representativeness of bureaucracies in enhancing government performance, social equity, and democratic principles. Symbolic representation, the newest iteration of representative bureaucracy, suggests that the mere existence of a passively represented bureaucracy can positively impact on citizens’ perceptions and behaviors even without its actual policy outcomes. Previous research has examined the causal relationship between symbolic representation and citizens’ perceived legitimacy in the context of policing, and provided experimental evidence on the effects of gender representation on citizens’ perceived performance, trustworthiness, and fairness of the agency (Riccucci, Van Ryzin, & Lavena, 2014).
The National People’s Congress of China (usually abbreviated NPC)) is the largest legislature in the world (i.e., 2924 members in 2017). Deputies to NPC are elected for five-year terms via a multi-tiered representative electoral system. The representativeness of NPC is guaranteed by the deliberative allocation of deputies which takes deputies’ region (including military), ethnicity, gender, and profession into consideration. This characteristic of NPC offers an opportunity to examine how representative bureaucracy works in the legislature level. Specifically, the present research interests in how the symbolic representation of NPC influences citizens to perceive its performance and fairness. Two survey experiments are designed to examine the effects of gender representativeness (Study 1) and ethnic representativeness (Study 2) in the NPC on citizens’ perception of its performance and fairness. The gender representativeness and ethnic representativeness are manipulated in between different regional delegations with contrastive proportions of female NPC deputies and minority NPC deputies.
In Study 1, Region Y delegation and Region L delegation are selected for the high gender representation condition (i.e., 31.87%) and low gender representation condition (i.e., 17.63%), respectively. Participants are presented a text which includes a description of the NPC as well as Region Y delegation and Region L delegation. In Study 2, Region G1 delegation and Region G2 delegation are selected for the high ethnic representation condition (i.e., 60.00%) and low ethnic representation condition (i.e., 38.36%), respectively. Participants are presented a text which includes a description of the NPC as well as Region G1 delegation and Region G2 delegation. Participants’ perceived performance and fairness are measured in a comparative frame in both studies. Participants are randomly assigned with half of them indicating the extent to which they think Region Y/G1 delegation performing better and being more fair than Region L/G2 delegation, and the other half indicating the extent to which they think if Region L/G2 delegation performing better and being more fair than Region Y/G1 delegation on 7-point scales. Theoretical and practical implications will be discussed based on the findings from the two studies.
