Why Active Representation Varies: Cultural Stereotypes and Differential Treatment by Street-Level Bureaucrats

How do cultural stereotypes influence the likelihood that minority street-level bureaucrats (SLBs) will actively represent marginalized subgroups within their ethnocultural community? While existing scholarship on representative bureaucracy has focused on the conditions under which minority SLBs engage in active representation, this study questions the hidden assumption that such representation is uniformly applied across the represented group. Drawing on 46 interviews with Arab social workers and Arab single mothers in Israel, we reveal how cultural stereotypes shape which subgroups within the minority community are deemed worthy of advocacy. SLBs see widowed mothers as morally legitimate and thus provide empathetic engagement and active representation. In contrast, divorced and, to a lesser extent, separated mothers often encounter culturally oriented “emotional othering.” We introduce the concept of “cultural boundaries of active representation” to explain how intra-minority stereotypes can suppress identity-based solidarity. The findings extend theories of representative bureaucracy by emphasizing the role of culture and internal group hierarchies in shaping discretionary practices.