(Under-)Representations in German Public Administration and Political Elites

Abstract

Global mobility and the increasing recognition of different group and individual identities are putting established meanings and practices of democracies to the test. To function as a role model for and secure legitimacy in society, political systems and societal elites need to better represent societal diversity in their ranks and integrate diversity-sensitive political decision-making processes. In many European countries, the struggle for equal representation is exacerbated by labor shortages in aging societies and societal changes in attitudes towards diversity (Dorhout et.al. 2021). The struggle for better representations at all levels of policymaking, public administration, and among Germany’s elites are also deeply connected to and influenced by larger societal negotiations around concepts like “post-migration” (Fouroutan 2019), “super-diversity” (Vertovec, 2007), and integration and diversity policies. In contrast to traditional immigration countries, most European countries only started more recently to adapt their public institutions to an increasingly diverse population. In Germany, for example, the workforce in public administrations, the way public administrations deal with external partners, and the integration of diversity into the political discourses and societal elites are slow to respond to societal calls for equal representation. This endangers their legitimacy as public institutions and their ability to effectively fulfill their duties. How, why, and in which ways these political actors are diversifying thus become important questions to policy theory concerned with representative democracies and their adaptation to societal diversification. Focusing on Germany, this panel seeks to shed light on different aspects of these struggles for representation and diversification in various political institutions by presenting findings of newly established research projects. The presentations start with an analysis of the changing opportunities of immigrants and their descendants in Germany for inclusion in the public workforce. It discusses the effects of demographic change and the expansion of the public administration on the employment of so far underrepresented populations. Whereas this first presentation starts with a simple migration-related understanding of cultural diversity, the second paper unpacks the meaning of diversity and the cross-cutting identities of employees in the public administration and their varying experiences. Moving from descriptive to active representation, the third presentation focuses on the implementation of diversity in the policies of public administrations. Studying public funding in Germany’s cultural and educational policy is an ideal field of study to analyse the extent to which diversity has developed into an established category to allocate public allowances. The final two presentations focus on those so far underrepresented groups themselves. Whereas the fourth presentation focuses on the experiences of elected officials on the local level and their experiences with group representation, the second focuses on the consequences of an underrepresented group in the political system for their attitudes about democracy. Together, these presentations show that there exists no simple relationship between descriptive and active representation but that the legitimacy of the political system depends on a much more serious consideration of the increasing diversity of the population and their representation.

Title	Details
(Under-)Representation in the Public Administration: Changing Opportunities for Migrants in Germany?	View Paper Details
Measuring Diversity in Germany’s Public Administration Workforce: A qualitative Exploration of diverse Identities	View Paper Details
Diversity in German Civil Society: A Mixed-Method Study on Organizational Access to Public Funds	View Paper Details
Diverse or not diverse? The perception of underrepresentation of migrants and its effects on attitudes in the German population	View Paper Details