The authors have evaluated government services in terms of bureaucratic encounters-the service-seeking transactions reported by 1,431 American adults. Reactions to such transactions are discussed as a joint product of the characteristics of the client and those of the agency. The implications of these client reactions for more general social and political questions are explored. Because so much of individual well-being depends upon serviceseeking transactions, the authors propose that their quality and satisfactoriness should be regarded as social indicators, and included among the measures of the quality of contemporary life.
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