I think that we have to be careful here, because one thing is what one may call public ownership of the means of production, another state dirigisme, and public service.
By public service I normally mean those involved in state activities where either the principle of exclusion does not apply or if it does it does so in a very attenuated form where we don't pay anywhere near the full cost.
"In economics, the exclusion principle states "the owner of a private good may exclude others from use unless they pay."; it excludes those who are unwilling or unable to pay for the private good, but does not apply to public goods that are known to be indivisible: such goods need only to be available to obtain their benefits rather than purchased."
"Rise and decline of dirigisme
France embarked on an ambitious and very successful program of modernization under state coordination. This programm of dirigisme, mostly implemented by governments between 1944 and 1983, involved the state control of certain industries such as transportation, energy and telecommunications as well as various incentives for private corporations to merge or engage in certain projects.The 1981 election of president François Mitterrand saw a short-lived increase in governmental control of the economy, nationalizing many industries and private banks. This form of increased dirigisme, was criticized as early as 1982. By 1983, the government decided to renounce dirigisme and start an era of rigueur ("rigor") or corporation. As a result, the government largely retreated from economic intervention; dirigisme has now essentially receded, though some of its traits remain. The French economy grew and changed under government direction and planning much more than in other European countries.Despite being a widely liberalized economy, the government continues to play a significant role in the economy: government spending, at 56% of GDP in 2014, is the second-highest in the European Union. Labor conditions and wages are highly regulated. The government continues to own shares in corporations in several sectors, including energy production and distribution, automobiles, transportation, and telecommunications....
France was in 2020 the largest Foreign Direct Investment recipient in Europe,[29] and Europe's second largest spender in Research and development. [30] It was ranked among the 10 most innovative countries in the world by the 2020 Bloomberg Innovation Index,[31] as well as the 15th most competitive nation globally, according to the 2019 Global Competitiveness Report (up 2 notches compared to 2018).["
By the way, I think that it was Aristotle that said that ideally a polis should have about 80,000 people
