Ipsos’s Global Trends survey gives us a panoramic view of how 18,000 people in 23 countries feel about the world – and their lives – today. The 400-question study includes sections on what citizens think of their governments, businesses and so-called experts.  

We can certainly find much in here to be concerned about, as well as some reasons for being more cheerful – but one of the things that immediately stands out is that countries do still matter. There may be global, overarching themes – fragmentation, cohesion and uncertainty – but each country has its own particular set of attitudes and aspirations. And, in the case of France, we see rather more fragmentation and uncertainty than we do cohesion.

France is, of course, just emerging from the bruising presidential election campaign between Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen, which has starkly underlined the challenges that the country faces. What our survey does, is put these pressure points in context. Set against a global backdrop, the French results are very worrying indeed.

Our work on the Perils of Perception has documented how wrong people often are about what is happening in the world around them. But the negative picture emerging from these French results does appear to be grounded in reality – at least to a degree. France may still be one of the richest countries in the world, but PwC’s latest analysis shows that it is poised to lose its place among the Top 10 world economies over the next decade. Britain, meanwhile, is expected to hang in there, albeit by its fingertips.

What to do? On the eve of the French presidential campaign, we found only 9% of French people to be positive about their government’s performance; only Spain and Mexico score lower – which helps to explain why the final two candidates were both from outside the mainstream political parties.  

This sense of alienation extends to the commercial world. In France, just 27% say they have a ‘high level of trust in business in general’ – the lowest of any country.  

Turning the corner?

The Trends survey gives us a few pointers as to what a ‘better France’ might look like.  

Perhaps it would be better to have more women in the limelight; 59% in France say that ‘things would work better if more women held positions with responsibilities in government and in companies’.

And what of the potential that doing good business could unleash? Our study finds 62% of French consumers saying that ‘in the future, the most successful brands will be those that make the most positive contribution to society, beyond just providing good services and products’. Which raises the question of whether France can do more with the things that France is good at. 

Local produce, grounded in the terroir of a particular area, is not going out of fashion. Across France, 69% say ‘I am more likely to buy products that are locally grown than those that are grown elsewhere’. 

So, how to bring about the change that the French people so clearly want to see? 

Six months before the elections, 66% of them were saying they wished ‘we had a strong leader, not the current elected government’. In opting for Macron v Le Pen, they showed the politicians what they thought of the existing set-up.  

It’s too early, of course, to judge whether Macron is going to be that strong leader the public is looking for. But we should be in no doubt that this is a country not at ease with itself – something that is thrown into sharper focus against this international backdrop. Some countries are reasonably upbeat about things; France, most certainly, is not.

Simon Atkinson is chief knowledge officer at Ipsos Mori