Advancing Social Equity in Public Budgeting: The Role of Minority Political Representation in Local Government

ABSTRACT Despite the growing number of minority elected officials, extant research has yet to understand if minority political representation improves social equity of budget allocation. This study tests whether having more minority representatives on county legislative bodies is associated with higher government redistributive spending, a key indicator of equitable resource distribution. Drawing on Peterson's (1981) classification of government programs into developmental, redistributive, and allocational, we investigate the impact of minority political representation on budget allocation in the context of the U.S. local government. Data from Florida's 67 counties from 2005 to 2018 demonstrate that enhancing minority political representation in county commissions is associated with a larger redistributive budget share relative to developmental and allocational shares. Moreover, we find that having a home rule charter amplifies the effect of minority representation on redistributive spending, further enhancing the distributive equity of public resource allocation.