Abstract
Representations of government and bureaucrats can reflect popular sentiment as well as inform beliefs about government (Holzer and Slater, 1995; Pautz and Roselle, 2010). As a result, the ways in which government employees are presented in film are important. This chapter reviews previous literature on bureaucratic representation before turning to how governments are portrayed in the popular American sitcom, Parks and Recreation. By focusing on three characters – Leslie Knope, Ron Swanson, and Tom Haverford – through the lenses of public service motivation and ethics, the chapter presents the various ways bureaucrats are presented, understood, and characterized. These characterizations are sometimes consistent with popular notions about bureaucrats, but other times, they are not. Parks presents a careful, nuanced view of public sector employees, reflecting in many ways a more accurate depiction of those who staff government agencies.
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Borry, E.L. (2019). Bureaucratic Representation in Parks and Recreation. In: Sullivan, H., Dickinson, H., Henderson, H. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of the Public Servant. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-03008-7_52-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-03008-7_52-1
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