Challenging or Enhancing the EU's Legitimacy? The Evolution of Representative Bureaucracy in the Commission's Staff Policies

This article presents an analysis of the European Commission's staffing policies. It focuses in particular on the extent to which, over time, the Commission has taken the criterion of nationality into account. The theoretical framework of this study is the theory of representative bureaucracy....

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of public administration research and theory 2013-10, Vol.23 (4), p.817-838
Main Author: Gravier, Magali
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Bureaucracy
Europe
European Commission
European Union
Loyalty
Management theory
Organizational behavior
Organizational behaviour
Studies
Workforce planning
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Summary:This article presents an analysis of the European Commission's staffing policies. It focuses in particular on the extent to which, over time, the Commission has taken the criterion of nationality into account. The theoretical framework of this study is the theory of representative bureaucracy. The article shows that, although the Commission does not use a quota system, its staffing policies have evolved from a limited practice of representation to a complex, explicit, but flexible strategy of representation, which satisfies the criteria of representative bureaucracy. However, due to the duty of loyalty to which civil servants of the European Union submit, these policies only satisfy the criterion of passive representation. The article ends on an explorative note, with the hypothesis that a third type of representation exists. It suggests the creation of a third concept, linkage representation, to account for this.
ISSN:1053-1858
1477-9803
DOI:10.1093/jopart/mut024