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The paper builds on earlier research that demonstrates a strong relationship between local level electoral structures and Latino bureaucratic representation. This research suggests that over time, descriptive minority legislative representation leads to a greater minority presence in the bureaucracy, but that the type of election determines the magnitude and scope of bureaucratic representation. A question remains however, concerning the direction of influence. Do minority legislators delegate top-level bureaucratic responsibilities to minority agents, who in turn appoint more minorities to lower level positions (a top-down process)? Or, do minorities enter the bureaucracy at the lower levels and move their way up the organization through time, finally gaining access to legislative positions as they acquire organizational influence (a bottom-up process)? I present a research proposal that is designed to disentangle the causal direction of this process by looking at school board, administrative, and teacher representation of Latinos in school districts of two states -- Texas and California -- across a ten-year period. The cross-sectional time series approach would allow for preliminary causality tests, and provide more leverage than previous studies concerning the direction (and magnitude of effects) of minority access to the bureaucracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]