Representative Bureaucracy

"Professor Samuel Krislov's 'Representative Bureaucracy' remains among the most important and enduring books in the field of public administration and its intersection with political science. It takes the kernel of the idea, inchoately introduced in J. Donald Kingsley's 1944 book by the same title, that public bureaucracies can be representative political institutions and it develops an overall analytic framework with empirically testable propositions that has served subsequent generations scholars very well. So well, in fact, that as the literature on representative bureaucracy blossomed, these propositions have become so ingrained that many younger scholars are unaware of their initial formulation and roots. That is one reason why the republication of this volume now is not only appropriate, but a critical step toward more tightly organizing the vast literature that it arguably spawned into a comprehensive empirically-based theory integrating all facets of the study of representative bureaucracy.... Krislov entered into this contentiousness [over affirmative action and agency socialization] with unusual balance, sophistication, and nuance--and substantial success in advancing our thinking about how public bureaucracies can and cannot be representative." 

-- David H. Rosenbloom, 

Distinguished Professor of Public Administration,

American University (from the new Foreword)


Quid Pro's new, authorized ebook edition of this classic study features quality digital formatting, linked notes, active Contents, the original index and tables--and even embedded page numbers from the original print editions, for continuity of citations, referencing, and classroom assignment. It joins other foundational works in the series by such renowned scholars as Neil Smelser, Talcott Parsons, Stuart Scheingold, and Philip Selznick.


SAMUEL KRISLOV is Professor Emeritus of Political Science and Law at the University of Minnesota.