Representative Bureaucracy Analysis

Sociologist Max Weber’s statement that bureaucracy is the distinctive mark of the modern era clearly describes a bureaucratic type of structure now intrinsic in public sector organizations. This type of structure which has been termed by theorist J. Donald Kingsley (1949) as a "Representative Bureaucracy", basically speaks of public workforces that are representative of the people in terms of race, ethnicity, and gender. In other words, a Representative Bureaucracy, is more or less "an assessment and reconstruction of public sector organizations for the sole purpose of ensuring that all groups in society are equally represented" (Duada, 1990). Thus, in relation to this definition and many other similar constructs, one can clearly see why that

Subramanian described performance testing as using an examination to determine whether a required ability was present in those tested. He looked at the European society in the eighteenth century for his main point, stating that rise of the renaissance and rationalism saw a development of democratic institutions and a performance testing. During the eighteenth century, coined as the Age of Enlightenment there was a change in thinking that allowed for freedom of thought and lesser influence of those in upper class societies. Democracy became one of the main principles in society and new institutions were built on ideas such as justice and equality .Events such as the French Revolution also contributed to this change in public sector organizations and it is this environment that performance testing was consequently developed on. With Subramanian attesting the fact that performance testing which emerged in the same proxy as democracy has indeed led to a more representative system of bureaucracy, one that was far off from the earlier systems in which the members of the upper class of all European countries had filled most of the higher positions which coincided with poor performances in the civil service, the change to having persons chosen based on their ability to perform for the civil service as opposed to

One such argument which has been brought forth looks at the use of "Ascription" as a means of recruitment in the bureaucracy. Describing this feature that has been highly engraved in public sector organizations around the globe as a process wherein the characteristics with which an individual is born is used to determine his or her suitability for a position, Subramanian took a strong stance on this basis of employment and selection. While he did not completely disregard this process, he considered it to be somewhat irrelevant and irrational as he argued from experience that even if one is selected on the grounds of his or her belongingness to a particular class, religion, or culture, they tend to shed their sympathies as they move up in the organization. This is so as their values and interests no longer are those of the class or group from which they came but are those of the class or group to which they now belong. He further purported that not only is "Ascription" unrepresentative, but it also is a gateway for preferential treatment / discrimination which is against the law in many countries such as Trinidad and Tobago who has policies that seeks to protect the integrity of