REPRESENTATIVE BUREAUCRACY AND MULTILEVEL GOVERNANCE IN THE EU: A RESEARCH AGENDA
KAREN JOHNSTON MILLERABSTRACT. Representative bureaucracy is fundamental to democratic principles such as legitimacy and acting on behalf of others (see Pitkin 1967; Mosher 1982). The European Commission (2010a) has recognized the importance of improving the representation of demographic groups in the political and administrative institutions of the EU, particularly in terms of economic growth, sustainable development, human rights and good governance. The focus of the paper is on the representation of women in public bureaucracies. The paper develops a research agenda of representative bureaucracy within the context of multilevel governance. To this regard, the paper draws upon theories of bureaucracy, representative bureaucracy, feminism and multilevel governance. The paper includes a review of extant research and secondary data, with an emphasis on the EU, to develop hypotheses for further investigation and to add to the debate on this emerging area of scholarship. pp. 50–75
Keywords: representation, bureaucracy, multi-level governance, Weber, feminism, European Commission