the french are so fond of their state that the most critical report on it to be published for years has become a bestseller. Despite its size (800 pages) and its price (179 francs) the book, Notre Etat: Le livre v?rit? de la fonction publique (Our State: The truth about the public sector), edited by Roger Fauroux and Bernard Spitz, has been a bestseller in France in the essay category for months. The book, in both its success and failure, is a useful reflection of the French ambivalence towards the state at the beginning of the new century.
It is the collective work of 29 public figures (including one foreigner, Franco Bassanini, the former Italian minister for public services) most of whom have served the French state for much of their careers. Graduates of ENA or Normale Sup, the authors have different political backgrounds but mainly represent a particular strand of the centre-left (many worked for former prime minister, Michel Rocard).
And, astonishingly, given their backgrounds, the writers express a sense of outrage towards what "their" state has become. When they entered public service, they had imagined a just, efficient and unobtrusive state. But through bitter experience, they have discovered an unjust, inefficient and overweening state. The differences in their diagnosis makes this impression no less overwhelming. Above all, they vehemently reject the analysis shared by a large section of the French political class which maintains that, after all, like Fellini's ship, the state works.
According to the latter diagnosis, the state still delivers enviable economic and social standards. It is true that France remains the fifth world power. It is also true that its public services-its railways, hospitals, schools and so on-function. They are even envied by other European countries, including Britain. None the less, as one of the contributors puts it: "For 20 years the state has stagnated whilst society has moved on rapidly." From education to health, industry to research, from diplomacy to justice-the conclusion is the same: the state is cumbersome, costly, inefficient and increasingly illegitimate.
The force behind this general verdict comes from the quality of the book's authors: men and women with a strong attachment to the state, who have experienced it from the inside, at different levels of responsibility, but often at the most senior level. It is worth noting, however, that a majority have abandoned the state in their own professional lives in favour of private industry. The brain drain from the public to the private sector today in France is just one illustration of the crisis which the authors describe.
So, what kind of state does France need? Despite their outrage, the authors all maintain a certain caution in their writing (they were more outspoken in their public statements at the time of the launch of the book). Neither statists nor ultra-liberals, they do not call for "more" nor "less" state, but for a more efficient and flexible state, one able to act as an arbitrator. They are aware that an attachment to the state is, for the most part, shared by the French, on left and right. They know that their fellow citizens (like those elsewhere in Europe) want lower taxes but more teachers, doctors and police officers.
Perhaps most daringly of all, some of the contributors call for the introduction of private sector management practices into the public sector-the theme which has dominated the British election campaign and its aftermath. The Italian minister explains how he introduced performance related pay into the administration in Rome. Bernard Spitz, former adviser to Michel Rocard (public), now adviser to Jean Marie-Messier at Vivendi Universal (private), recalls that the communist, Maurice Thorez explicitly asked that advancement in the public service should be based on talent and not on seniority. These are principles which Thorez's current communist comrades have forgotten.
Notwithstanding their radicalism, the authors are also almost unanimously against any form of "big bang." The state can be reformed, they say. We have had various examples in recent years: the success of France Telecom; the reform and reduction in size of the military. But it is equally true that the finance ministry remains stubbornly unreformed and that schools too have rejected a series of proposed reforms.
One of the authors proposes the creation of a new ministry of public governance, which is in itself rather revealing. In France, it is said that the only thing public servants know how to do is to create commissions or new ministries. And this is without a doubt the limitation of the book. Can French public servants be trusted to reform the French public sector? In an interview published at the time of the book's publication, Roger Fauroux, (a protestant) reminded us that it was Luther, an Augustine monk, who after 20 years of life in a monastery, ended up undermining the catholic church. "It is those that know the state from the inside who are the best placed to criticise it," he argued. That is open to debate, especially in France where the political class is so dominated by public servants-the majority of elected representatives come from the civil service, teaching or central administration. And that political class has, unsurprisingly, been less than enthusiastic about this important book.
Translated from the French by Vidhya Alakeson
