1. Organizing for Societal Security and Crisis Management: Governance Capacity and Legitimacy

This book is about how governments deal with crises. Our world is a turbulent one full of intractable problems. Threats such as terrorism and natural disasters have increased the ‘fear factor’ in recent years, making crisis management a high priority for political leaders. Planning and preparing for the unexpected and unknown, dealing with ambiguity and uncertainty and responding to urgency at the same time as meeting citizens’ expectations are difficult tasks for the political leadership and the public administration. This chapter introduces the main topic of the book and presents the different chapters included. The first part of the book addresses the topic of governance capacity in government administrative arrangements. The second part revolves around government capacity in crisis management in specific types of crises and country settings. The third part is concerned with governance legitimacy and how the citizens assess threats and government actions in crisis management.