From data governance to global norms: Responsive sovereignty in the age of algorithmic power

This paper examines how states adapt authority and legitimacy in response to algorithmic systems reshaping transnational governance. Focusing on the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and South Korea's digitally enabled pandemic response—analytically complementary cases of governance of data-intensive systems and governance through digital infrastructures—it analyzes how distinct governance modes reconfigure state authority. The study introduces responsive sovereignty as an analytical framework for understanding adaptive state authority in the digital age and identifies recursive accountability as a proposed institutional pathway through which oversight, contestation, and adjustment may support legitimacy. Through qualitative analysis of regulatory and operational contexts, the paper illustrates how continuing accountability obligations, transparency mechanisms, and adaptive oversight processes may contribute to legitimacy-related outcomes. The findings contribute to debates on hybrid governance by suggesting that institutional processes of iterative validation may support legitimacy-related outcomes across institutional, technical, and societal domains. The findings are intended as analytical rather than statistical generalizations. At the same time, the effectiveness of recursive accountability depends on institutional capacity, political context, and power asymmetries in transnational governance.