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.

Satisfaction with public services in Spain is in line with the OECD average values. Slightly more than two thirds (67%) of people reported being satisfied with the education and healthcare systems, similar to OECD averages across OECD countries, 67% and 68% respectively. Slightly above half of respondents in Spain were satisfied with the judiciary system, 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.

Spain scores 0.45 in the IGI on stakeholder participation, which is below the OECD average (0.52). It scores 0.18 (out of a maximum value of 0.33) on stakeholder participation guidance, which is higher than the OECD average.

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.

Spain performs slightly below the average across OECD countries on green budgeting. It scores 0.44 on the OECD Green Budgeting Index, compared to 0.49 on OECD average (1 is the maximum possible score, meaning full application of green budgeting). Spain fares above the OECD average on enabling environment (0.19). Yet, the score concerning accountability and transparency (0.02) is low compared to OECD average (0.08). On methods and tools (0.11) and institutional arrangements (0.12), Spain almost matches the OECD averages (0.12 and 0.15 respectively).

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

Spain, 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.

Spain had a fiscal deficit of -6.9% of GDP in 2021, below the average across OECD countries (-7.5%). In 2022, the deficit reduced to -4.8%. Public debt as a share of GDP reached 142.7% of GDP in 2021 above the OECD average (120.8%). In 2022, the debt ratio fell to 117.7% of GDP.

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.

Spain spent 11.6% of GDP on public procurement in 2021, compared to 12.9% on average in the OECD. In 2021, Spain public investment was 2.8% of GDP, below the OECD average (3.4%).

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

In 2021, public employment in Spain represented 16.6% of total employment. This rate is slightly below the average rate (18.6%) across OECD countries and has increased (by 1.2 percentage points) since 2019.

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 Spain, as in most OECD countries, internal mobility is possible for all civil servants, although encouraged or expected according to specific conditions. At the same time, internal mobility is recommended for senior level civil servants. Spain has not implemented the practice of developing individual learning plans for 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.

Spain is slightly above the OECD-EU average regarding gender equality in senior management, with 43.1% of women in senior management positions compared to 40.8. However, it is still below gender parity. In addition, Spain is a top performer concerning women representation in ministerial positions. Almost two-thirds (64%) of ministers are women, compared to 36%, on average across OECD countries.

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 Spain is 52 years, 1 year younger than the OECD average (53 years).