The dynamics of governance capacity and legitimacy: the case of a digital tracing technology during the COVID-19 pandemic

Input, throughput, and output legitimacy of government measures are considered to be essential for governance capacity in crisis. During the COVID-19 crisis, governments around the world developed digital contact-tracing applications to support their crisis management—with varying degrees of success. While Norway is seen as a high performer in the crisis, the contact-tracing app called Smittestopp developed in Norway had little impact. Using a case study, we studied the governance capacity and legitimacy of this technology in terms of how it was developed, how much it was utilized by citizens, and its usefulness relative to other government measures. Although the app did very little to help the COVID-19 crisis management in Norway, we identify some important lessons to be learned. We argue that the initial input and throughput legitimacy is important if a government policy is to maintain output legitimacy over time and be effective in a crisis. Consequently, this study contributes to the literature on governance capacity and legitimacy in crisis management.