Trust and satisfaction with public services

Trust in public institutions and satisfaction with public services are important yardsticks of the quality of public governance. They reflect people’s perceptions of government competence in designing and delivering policies and services, and expectations on the behaviour of public institutions and their representatives. Although high trust in public institutions is not a necessary outcome of democratic governance, trust and satisfaction with public services facilitate effective governance, as they correlate with high rates of compliance with policies, participation in public life and social cohesion.

France fares comparatively well on satisfaction with public services. Approximately 74% are satisfied with the health care system and 71% with education, 6 and 4 percentage points higher, respectively, than the average values across OECD countries. However, the share of people satisfied with administrative services (52%) is 11 percentage points below the OECD average (63%).

Just over one-quarter of French indicated high or moderately high trust in their national government (28%), below the average value across OECD countries (41%). However, a majority of French people indicated high or moderately high trust in the civil service (52%) and almost half of them had high or moderately high trust in local government (48%). In cross-country comparison, France ranks above OECD average on trust in these two institutions. Only 26% of French indicate high or moderately high trust in the parliament.

 Achieving results with good governance practices 

In an age of multiple crises, governments need to adopt more advanced practices to build trust in public institutions and enhance democratic resilience. Actions include building on democratic strengths, such as enhancing citizen and stakeholder engagement in decision making; reinforcing key competences to handle crises, such as budgeting and public financial management processes to address the green and digital transitions; and protecting against threats to democratic values, such as maintaining effective public integrity rules and promoting ethical use of artificial intelligence.

Citizen and stakeholder engagement in decision making helps to improve the design, implementation, and public acceptance of policies, infrastructure and services. The OECD Infrastructure Governance Index (IGI) on stakeholder participation provides an overview of countries’ performance in developing national guidance for stakeholder engagement, promoting their effective participation, and ensuring stakeholder oversight over infrastructure projects.

France scores 0.40 in the IGI on stakeholder participation, which is below the OECD average (0.52). France scores close to the OECD average values in stakeholder participation guidance (0.17) and stakeholder participation practices (0.18). However, it scores 0.05, out of a maximum value of 0.33, in stakeholder oversight of infrastructure projects, significantly below the OECD average (0.19).

Budgeting management processes, such as green budgeting, can help address the climate crisis and achieve environmental goals. While there has been a rapid increase in the number of countries implementing green budgeting mechanisms, these could be used more effectively. Green budgeting mechanisms include institutional arrangements to assess the environmental impacts of budgetary and fiscal policies, methods for evaluating their consistency, mechanisms to enhance transparency and accountability, and an enabling budgetary governance framework.

France performs above the average across OECD countries in green budgeting. It scores 0.59 on the OECD Green Budgeting Index, compared to 0.49 on average in the OECD (1 is the maximum possible score, meaning full application of green budgeting). France fares well in institutional arrangements, scoring 0.18 (out of a maximum value of 0.25), and in enabling environment, scoring 0.19. However, there is room for improvement in methods and tools, where France scores 0.14, and in accountability and transparency, where France scores 0.09.

Financial contributions allow individuals and entities to support political candidates and parties. However, political finance needs to be adequately regulated to reduce risks of undue influence and policy capture.

In France, publicly owned enterprises and foreign states or enterprises are not allowed to finance political campaigns and parties. Additionally, anonymous donations to political parties or candidates need to be registered or reported.

Strengthening information integrity has become particularly complex in the digital age. While digitalisation and artificial intelligence (AI) provide enormous opportunities, including in expanding and protecting the exercise of some democratic rights and freedoms, their use also brings challenges for governments such as ensuring that they enhance people’s willingness and ability to engage constructively in democratic life and that they benefit society as a whole.

France has policy initiatives, such as guidelines, standards, or principles, in place to ensure the ethical use of AI.

 What resources public institutions use and how they are managed 

After stark deterioration due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which required emergency measures and direct support mechanisms to business and people, public finances show positive signs, but the recovery remains fragile. The fiscal balance is the difference between a government’s revenues and its expenditures in a year. When the government spends more than it collects, it has a fiscal deficit. When it spends less, it has a fiscal surplus.

In 2021, France had a fiscal deficit of -6.5% of GDP, slightly below the average across OECD countries (-7.5%). The deficit was reduced to -4.7% in 2022, a significant reduction but still far from fiscal equilibrium. France’s public debt in 2021 was 138.1% of GDP, which was above the OECD average of 120.8%. In 2022, the public debt was reduced to 117%.

Public investment can enhance productivity and economic growth and help implement long-term policies, such as green energy infrastructure to support action on climate change. In turn, governments procure large amounts of goods, services and works to help them implement policies and deliver public services.

France spent 15.4% of its GDP on procurement in 2021, which is above the average across OECD countries (12.9%). France’s investment spendings are close to the OECD average. In 2021, it invested 3.7% of GDP, compared to 3.4% on average across OECD countries. No major changes took place in 2022 (3.9%).

The size of public employment varies significantly among OECD countries, ranging from around 10% to just above 30%. 

France has a slightly higher rate of public employment than the OECD average. The size of public employment as share of total employment in France was 21.1% in 2021, compared to 18.6% on across OECD countries.

Governments use different mechanisms to harness and develop the capacity of their workforce. For example, internal mobility in public administrations helps to pool human resources across government and attract and retain civil servants.

In France, internal mobility of civil servants is recommended and encouraged. Similarly, internal mobility for senior-level civil servants is also recommended and encouraged. France has the practice of developing individual learning plans for all or most public employees.

Equal representation of women and men in the public sector is a key indicator of progress towards gender equality, diversity and better representation. In 2020, a majority of employees in the public sector in OECD countries were women (58.9%), with large differences among countries. However, women are often under-represented in managerial positions.

France is slightly below the OECD average for gender equality in senior management in the national administration. With 31.1% women in senior management positions in national administration, France is below the OECD-EU average (40.8%). Moreover, France has not achieved gender parity in ministerial positions (35%). The result aligns with the OECD average (36%).

Young people are under-represented in public and political life across the OECD, with the risk that their voice and interests are not sufficiently taken in consideration in policymaking.

In France, the average age of cabinet members in 2022 is 51 years, 4 years lower than it was in 2018 and 2 years below the OECD average of 53 years.