This article reports research on bureaucrat behaviour. Where discretion exists, do primary associations such as religious, gender or racial identity guide behaviour or are these associations superseded by secondary learned professional or technocratic attachments? Using the theoretical lens of representative bureaucracy and Q methodology to investigate bureaucrat role perceptions, two distinct bureaucrat typologies are identified in Belfast. The evidence demonstrates that an elite-level bureaucrat may actively represent his or her own professional interests or, alternatively, may seek out and actively represent the interests of the political elite as a collective. The findings have implications for representative bureaucracy research as it is demonstrated that an elite-level bureaucrat may actively represent something other than a primary identity. This contribution also provides a useful insight into everyday life within a bureau of a successful power-sharing system of governance.

Points for practitioners

Politicians and bureaucrats from Northern Ireland are perpetually being invited to ‘teach the lessons’ of their power-sharing experience. This article highlights the importance of the elite-level bureaucrat in sustaining power-sharing regimes and provides an empirical basis for those seeking to draw on the Northern Ireland experience of conflict management and post-conflict governance.