Conceptual challenges in turbulent times: crisis governance, legitimacy and trust

Abstract

Even in an era known for turbulence and permacrisis, the Covid-19 pandemic was an unprecedented event in terms of scope and intensity (Ansell, Sørensen, e Torfing 2021). What began as a health emergency, soon unfolded other compounding and transboundary economic, social and constitutional/legal crises. Even so, the past decade has witnessed similar examples, such as the financial crisis and the refugee crisis, which created spill-overs and subsequent to large-scale stress tests of governance effectiveness and societal coherence within and between EU member states. As Christensen, Lægreid, and Rykkja (2016) posit, two core questions arise in connection with crisis management: (i) the question of governance capacity, i.e., the coordination, regulation and implementation capacity, involving issues of hierarchy, networks and leadership to deliver efficient and effective crisis management; and (ii) the question of governance legitimacy, i.e., citizens’ trust in government, accountability, support, expectations, and reputation. Countries have adopted different modes of crisis governance and policy styles, with varying results at many levels (see for instance Christensen et al. 2022; Zahariadis et al. 2023). Managing these severe and unexpected crises in turbulent times posed significant challenges to public governance, including the basic understandings of concepts that underpinned crisis policies. Now that governments are entering in the learning phase of the crisis management (Boin 2008) this panels aims to contribute to this stage by revisiting concepts related to crisis governance, trust and legitimacy. The objective of this panel is twofold. First, understand the impact the crisis had on these concepts and, second, discuss new perspectives that can contribute to a more enriched post-crisis learning. Ansell, Christopher, Eva Sørensen, e Jacob Torfing. 2021. «The COVID-19 pandemic as a game changer for public administration and leadership? The need for robust governance responses to turbulent problems». Public Management Review 23(7): 949–60. Boin, Arjen, ed. 2008. Crisis Management. Los Angeles: SAGE Publications. Christensen, Tom et al. 2022. «The Nordic Governments’ Responses to the Covid‐19 Pandemic: A Comparative Study of Variation in Governance Arrangements and Regulatory Instruments». Regulation & Governance: rego.12497. Christensen, Tom, Per Lægreid, e Lise H. Rykkja. 2016. «Organizing for Crisis Management: Building Governance Capacity and Legitimacy». Public Administration Review 76(6): 887–97. Zahariadis, Nikolaos, Evangelia Petridou, Theofanis Exadaktylos, e Jörgen Sparf. 2023. «Policy styles and political trust in Europe’s national responses to the COVID-19 crisis». Policy Studies 44(1): 46–67.

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