The emergence of externally active representative bureaucracy, a narrative review

Abstract

This article analyzes the evolution of governance models within public administrations as they respond to complex socio-political challenges.It emphasizes the need to enhance the legitimacy and representativeness of decision-making processes in the face of persistent issues, social fragmentation, increasing inequalities, and political polarization.The study discusses two primary models: citizen participation, which promotes a more engaged form of democracy, and representative bureaucracy, which seeks to ensure that public administration reflects socio-demographic diversity.However, these frameworks have flaws, particularly in achieving representativeness and maintaining administrative efficiency.To address these issues, the concept of "Externally Active Representative Bureaucracy" (EARB) is proposed, which involves incorporating citizens directly into administrative structures to address specific challenges while improving the legitimacy and representativeness of decisions.The article reviews 155 academic articles to explore the various dimensions and effects of representative bureaucracy and citizen participation.The objective is to illustrate that EARB provides an innovative approach to public administration that bridges bureaucratic efficiency with citizen inclusion, inviting further research into this hybrid model to enhance our understanding of the operation of modern public administrations.

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 2 citations exist upstream.

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.