This excerpt from French historian de Tocqueville reflects that administrative processes are naturally slow. How fast time passes is subjective, especially for those who rely on the administration's proper functioning. It is certainly not easy to determine what exactly constitutes an efficient and diligent administration from a theoretical perspective. Legitimate expectations of the citizens who are subject to an administrative act should obviously be taken into consideration but so should the essential requirements of the administrative action: one must not forget that it is in everybody's interest that the governance of a country runs well.

It is immediately apparent, as Cluzel has shown, that there is an inherent and ambiguous relationship between the need for quality in administrative decision making and speed in the procedure. Speed is obviously an actual component in the quality of a decision (in terms of receiving a quick decision), but it may also have the opposite effect. While speed can be measured, the quality of an act cannot as it is highly subjective or at the very least rather ambiguous. The term may be used as a superlative – and so we may speak in terms of a ‘quality’ procedure, which implies ‘high quality’, just as we may describe a product. It is also possible to speak of ‘the qualities’ of the procedure, meaning its characteristics. These two aspects are interrelated: if the procedure is of (good) quality, it is because it has certain qualities (characteristics). Furthermore, through requirements such as the right of defence and consultation procedures, it is possible to note guarantees of the good quality of the act itself.