This book is about the experience of ordinary people with governance
when they come into contact with offcials delivering public policies at
the grass roots of their society. The services delivered include both the
‘good’ goods of public policy such as education and health care, and the
necessary but not always welcome services of the police and offcials issuing documents such as identity cards and driving licences. The view of
government at the grass roots is very different from that at the top of
government. In the words of a Chinese proverb: The mountains are high
and the emperor is far away