Within the representative bureaucracy literature, scholars argue that public perceptions of government will improve when their government looks like them. In particular, this study focuses on how the public perceives the fairness of policy outcomes, measured as distributive justice. We test this through a survey experiment that examines how perceptions of distributive justice are affected by the racial diversity of government employees. Respondents are presented with a vignette about grants allocated to small businesses, and then provided information about the racial diversity of agency employees. We further examine whether levels of racial resentment impact the relationship between diversity in government and the perceived distributive justice of policy outcomes. Racial resentment, frequently used in political science as a proxy for levels of prejudice, is included because reactions to information about race and government policy are likely to shape perceptions about the legitimacy of government action and views on representative bureaucracy. The experiment results indicate racial representation in government matters for Whites, and these effects vary by expressed levels of racial resentment. In contrast, distributive justice perceptions of non-White respondents are not changed by information on racial diversity within government agencies and do not vary by levels of racial resentment.

中文翻译：

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了解代议制官僚主义和种族怨恨是否影响公众对政府计划分配正义的看法

在代表性官僚机构文献中，学者们认为，当政府看起来像他们时，公众对政府的看法就会改善。本研究特别关注公众如何看待政策结果的公平性（以分配正义来衡量）。我们通过一项调查实验来检验这一点，该实验考察了政府雇员的种族多样性如何影响分配正义的看法。受访者会看到有关分配给小企业的补助金的小插曲，然后提供有关机构员工种族多样性的信息。我们进一步研究种族怨恨程度是否影响政府多元化与政策结果分配正义之间的关系。政治学中经常使用种族怨恨作为偏见程度的代表，它被包括在内，因为对有关种族和政府政策的信息的反应可能会影响对政府行动合法性的看法以及对代议制官僚机构的看法。实验结果表明白人在政府事务中的种族代表性，并且这些影响因表达的种族怨恨程度而异。相比之下，非白人受访者的分配正义观念不会因政府机构内种族多样性信息而改变，也不会因种族怨恨程度而变化。