Citizen contacting and bureaucratic treatment-response in urban government: Some further evidence

Citizen-bureaucratic relationships are particularly important in the urban government context. Drawing upon survey data from one city, this article examines whether certain individual-level characteristics, such as ethnic background and age, are related to citizen evaluations of bureaucratic treatment. Different individual-level characteristics are related to citizen evaluations of different types of bureaucratic contacts. The evidence also suggests that several dimensions of bureaucratic treatment (e.g., politeness, understanding) may be evaluated somewhat differently. In general and most important, these findings support the contention that at the interpersonal or "street-level" certain biases, perceived or real, may exist.