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.

Mexico shows mixed performance on satisfaction with public services. Satisfaction with the education system (67%) is similar to the OECD average (67%), while satisfaction with healthcare (57%) is significantly below the OECD average (68%).

Trust in the civil service in Mexico is comparatively high, with 55% of the population expressing high or moderately high trust, slightly above the OECD average of 50%. Trust in the federal government, local government, and parliament is not available in Mexico.

 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.

Mexico is below the OECD average on the IGI on stakeholder participation. It scores 0.23 on the IGI, compared to the average value 0.52 across OECD countries (1 is the maximum possible score, meaning full application of IGI on stakeholder participation). Mexico’s highest score is on stakeholder oversight, with a score of 0.13 out of a maximum value of 0.33.

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.

With a score of 0.43, on a 0-1 scale, Mexico performs slightly below the average across OECD countries in the application of green budgeting. Mexico achieves its highest score in the enabling environment dimension and its lowest score on accountability and transparency.

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 Mexico, publicly owned enterprises and foreign states or enterprises are not allowed to finance political campaigns and parties. In turn, 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.

Mexico, along with 16 other OECD countries, has introduced laws and regulations (formal requirements), to ensure the ethical management and use of algorithms for AI by public institutions.

 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.

Mexico had a fiscal deficit of -6.0% of GDP in 2021, which is slightly lower than the average across OECD countries of -7.5%. Mexico has also low public debt. In 2021, the Mexican debt amounted to 54.5% of GDP, compared to 120.8% on average across OECD countries.

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.

Mexico also spends less than the average on public procurement. In 2021, Mexico spent 4.5% of GDP on public procurement, significantly lower than the average of 12.9% in the OECD. Mexico’s public investment rate (1.7% of GDP) was below the OECD average (3.4%) in 2021.

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

Public employment as a percentage of total employment in Mexico is 13.7%, lower than the OECD average of 18.6%.

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 Mexico, internal mobility is possible but not encouraged or expected for civil servants. In addition, internal mobility is also possible for senior-level civil servants, although it is not encouraged or expected. Mexico has not implemented the practice of developing individual learning plans for most public servants.

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.

Mexico fares comparatively well on women representation in political positions. Mexico has a higher share of women in ministerial positions (42%) compared to 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.

The average age of cabinet members in Mexico is 61, which is higher than the OECD average of 53.