Periodic Reporting for period 2 - LEGITIMULT (Legitimate crisis management and multilevel governance)
Berichtszeitraum: 2023-10-01 bis 2025-09-30
The LEGITIMULT project centers on scrutinizing decisions, measures, and processes influencing democratic governance, primarily through the lens of Multilevel Governance (MLG). Examining crisis politics extends beyond the national sphere to include supranational and international entities like the EU and WHO, as well as regional and local levels. The project seeks to comprehend who made decisions , how decisions were made , and the interplay among actors and processes within and across countries (intergovernmental relations perspective). Focusing on the Covid-19 pandemic, the project aims to evaluate the impact of crisis measures on democracy, specifically on rule of law, democratic participation, human and minority rights, trust, and economic sustainability. The LEGITIMULT Impact Strategy involves active engagement with stakeholders such as policy-makers at subnational, national, EU, and international levels, ordinary citizens, and the scientific community. The overarching goal is to create a toolkit for legitimate crisis governance applicable beyond the project's duration. The project involves developing a new dataset analyzing Covid-19 measures taken by 31 European countries, considering the impact of multilevel governance institutions and intergovernmental relations on these measures and on democracy and human rights. The intention is to assess when global and supranational institutions should act and how they can best intervene. During the implementation of Work Package 7, research findings will be applied in activities across four different countries to involve citizens, gather their opinions on crisis management, and enhance awareness of decision-making processes. All research findings will be consolidated and disseminated through various tools, primarily targeting policy and decision-makers. The resultant Toolkit on Legitimate Crisis Governance stands as the project's primary output, serving as a comprehensive resource for decision-makers to navigate future crises from a decision-making perspective.
WP1: empirical foundation. Comprehensive dataset of crisis response measures from 31 European countries during the COVID-19 pandemic. This dataset, continually updated, captured the nuances of territorial differentiation and the roles of various governmental tiers. The WP also developed an innovative coding scheme, enabling robust comparative analysis and supporting the work of subsequent packages.
WP2: conceptual and theoretical dimensions of crisis governance. It identified the trade-offs democratic governments face in times of crisis and developed a framework that integrated legitimacy, crisis management, and multilevel governance (MLG). Through systematic literature reviews, comparative studies, and survey experiments, WP2 deepened the project’s theoretical underpinnings
WP3: rule of law and democratic participation, examining how parliaments and expert advisory bodies functioned during the pandemic. It analyzed the involvement of regional parliaments, the impact of advisory bodies, and the restrictions on political rights, producing comprehensive analyses and identifying best practices for maintaining legitimacy and accountability.
WP4: human rights, minority rights, and non-discrimination, investigating how crisis governance affected marginalized communities. Through in-depth interviews and qualitative research across Austria, Croatia, Italy, and Slovenia, the team provided critical insights into the experiences of minorities, border communities, and vulnerable groups.
WP5: trust in crisis governance. By conducting a large-scale survey across six EU countries, the team analyzed how public trust in government and institutions was shaped during the pandemic. The findings, disseminated through research papers and open-access datasets, offered empirical evidence on the relationship between crisis management strategies and public perceptions of legitimacy, providing valuable guidance for policymakers.
WP6: economic sustainability, focusing on the design, coordination, and effectiveness of social, fiscal, and economic measures. It produced literature reviews, datasets, and papers, highlighting the interplay between national and subnational authorities and the importance of intergovernmental coordination.
WP1-6 produced datasets, literature reviews, articles and chapters in books.
WP7 bridged research and practice, ensuring that the project’s insights translated into real-world impact. Through activities such as a multilingual e-learning course, Citizens’ Juries, Media Workshops, and practitioner engagement, it fostered democratic participation and co-created outputs with stakeholders. The development of policy recommendations and a practical toolkit for crisis governance exemplified the project’s commitment to actionable outcomes and inclusiveness.
WP2: conceptual and theoretical dimensions of crisis governance. It identified the trade-offs democratic governments face in times of crisis and developed a framework that integrated legitimacy, crisis management, and multilevel governance (MLG). Through systematic literature reviews, comparative studies, and survey experiments, WP2 deepened the project’s theoretical underpinnings
WP3: rule of law and democratic participation, examining how parliaments and expert advisory bodies functioned during the pandemic. It analyzed the involvement of regional parliaments, the impact of advisory bodies, and the restrictions on political rights, producing comprehensive analyses and identifying best practices for maintaining legitimacy and accountability.
WP4: human rights, minority rights, and non-discrimination, investigating how crisis governance affected marginalized communities. Through in-depth interviews and qualitative research across Austria, Croatia, Italy, and Slovenia, the team provided critical insights into the experiences of minorities, border communities, and vulnerable groups.
WP5: trust in crisis governance. By conducting a large-scale survey across six EU countries, the team analyzed how public trust in government and institutions was shaped during the pandemic. The findings, disseminated through research papers and open-access datasets, offered empirical evidence on the relationship between crisis management strategies and public perceptions of legitimacy, providing valuable guidance for policymakers.
WP6: economic sustainability, focusing on the design, coordination, and effectiveness of social, fiscal, and economic measures. It produced literature reviews, datasets, and papers, highlighting the interplay between national and subnational authorities and the importance of intergovernmental coordination.
WP1-6 produced datasets, literature reviews, articles and chapters in books.
WP7 bridged research and practice, ensuring that the project’s insights translated into real-world impact. Through activities such as a multilingual e-learning course, Citizens’ Juries, Media Workshops, and practitioner engagement, it fostered democratic participation and co-created outputs with stakeholders. The development of policy recommendations and a practical toolkit for crisis governance exemplified the project’s commitment to actionable outcomes and inclusiveness.
The toolkit is available for using by a variety of stakeholders through different tools such as an e-learning course and media guidelines, as well as through policy recommendations. A new dataset on the impact of MLG institutions and MLG IGR has been developed and made available.
Inclusive citizenship have been strengthened through the involvement of citizens in the development and refinement of the toolkit and throughout the project to ensure that the impact of crisis governance measures on people’s life within democracies is limited and the rule of law and fundamental rights are upheld and protected.
All this will impact on democratic governance, that will be reinvigorated through the provision of the toolkit on Legitimate Crisis Governance which can be used through a series of tools, by a variety of stakeholders involved in crisis governance
Inclusive citizenship have been strengthened through the involvement of citizens in the development and refinement of the toolkit and throughout the project to ensure that the impact of crisis governance measures on people’s life within democracies is limited and the rule of law and fundamental rights are upheld and protected.
All this will impact on democratic governance, that will be reinvigorated through the provision of the toolkit on Legitimate Crisis Governance which can be used through a series of tools, by a variety of stakeholders involved in crisis governance