Recurring Street‐Level Encounters: How Bureaucratic Representation Changes Through Citizen Interactions

Abstract

Representative bureaucracy theory posits that policy outcomes made by bureaucrats will reflect the interests of groups with whom they share social identities. However, the question remains whether each bureaucrat consistently acts on behalf of its constituents across a series of street‐level interactions. Considering the sequential nature of state‐citizen encounters, this study incorporates both social identity theory and identity theory into representative bureaucracy and examines whether Black and Hispanic officers' previous issuance of traffic citations affects their current issuance of citations toward same race/ethnic drivers. Tracking traffic citation practices of individual officers from Florida reveals that racial/ethnic congruence between officers and citizens results in fewer citations. However, officers who issued citations in their preceding encounters are more likely to cite the same race/ethnic drivers in current encounters. These results indicate that bureaucrats' previous interactional contexts may limit their current provision of substantive representation, overwhelming the influence of shared social identities.