Spillover Effects of Minority Representation on Majority Bureaucrats’ Behavioral Change

Abstract

Abstract Representative bureaucracy scholarship has rarely examined whether passive representation of minorities changes the behavior of majority bureaucrats. To address this omission, this article explicitly tests the relationship between the two, in the context of traffic law enforcement. Using individual‐level data over multiple years in Washington and South Carolina, analyses show that minority representation has spillover effects on decisions made by White officers. They are more likely to treat drivers of color similarly to White drivers, when working on a more racially representative police force. These findings support an underexplored causal mechanism whereby representation improves policy results for historically underprivileged groups, making a theoretical contribution to representative bureaucracy. It also has managerial implications for practitioners who seek to reform future law enforcement for greater racial equity in policing outcomes.