ABSTRACT
Moving away from attitudes and orientations typically associated with identities in social and political universes, Part 4 reports findings about citizen interface with government institutions and citizens’ perceptions about these institutions. Governance processes are examined in terms of citizen awareness of, and benefits from, various welfare schemes of central and state governments and the institutions’ leaders approach to getting work done or resolving disputes. The extent to which citizens find public institutions trustworthy, efficient, and distributively just is also explored. Findings suggest a wide but uneven distribution of information and benefits across schemes and states, and a widespread citizen preference of approaching local government leader in order to get work done. Public trust in institutions is robust enough to sustain democracy but low levels of citizen trust in key institutions such as the bureaucracy and political parties do not bode well for governance.
