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.

Slovenia fares well on satisfaction with the education and healthcare systems. In 2022, 79% of Slovenians were satisfied with the education system, significantly higher than the OECD average (67%). Healthcare satisfaction is equal to the OECD average at 68%. While satisfaction with the judiciary (50%) is below the OECD average (56%).

 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.

Slovenia outperforms the OECD average on the IGI on stakeholder participation. It scores 0.56 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). Slovenia performs particularly well on stakeholder participation practices and stakeholder oversight, with a score of 0.22 out of a maximum value of 0.33.

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 Slovenia, publicly owned enterprises and foreign states or enterprises are not allowed to finance political campaigns and parties. In turn, anonymous donations to political parties are banned, and all contributions to political parties and campaigns must be registered and 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.

Slovenia ensures the ethical use of artificial intelligences through policy initiatives, such as guidelines, standards or principles.

 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.

The fiscal deficit in Slovenia was reduced from -4.6% of GDP in 2021 to -3.0% in 2022. The deficit is lower than the average across OECD countries at -7.5% in 2021. In addition, Slovenia’s public debt also decreased from 90% of GDP in 2021 to 69.3% in 2022. The level of debt is moderate in comparison to the OECD average of 120.8% in 2021.

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.

Public procurement spending in Slovenia increased from 12.1% of GDP in 2019 to 13.7% in 2021, 0.8 percentage points higher than the OECD average (12.9% of GDP). Slovenia’s investment spending as a share of GDP was 4.8% in 2021, compared to 3.4% of GDP on average across OECD countries.

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

Public employment as a share of total employment in Slovenia is 17.2%, slightly below 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 Slovenia, internal mobility of civil servants is possible but not encouraged or expected. Similarly, internal mobility is also possible for senior-level civil servants, although it is not encouraged or expected. In Slovenia individual learning plans are not developed 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.

Slovenia has achieved gender equality in senior management positions in the national administration, with 57.1% women compared to the average of 40.8% across OECD-EU countries. However, Slovenia has not achieved gender equality in ministerial positions, although it slightly surpasses the OECD average (39% against 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 Slovenia is 49, 4 years younger than the OECD average of 53.