COVID-19 governance, legitimacy, and sustainability: Lessons from the Australian experience

Abstract

During 2020, Australia managed the global and systemic COVID-19 crisis successfully as measured by health and economic indicators. It marshalled the government’s delivery capacity to control the health crisis and put in place measures to offset the induced economic and social costs. At the same time, the crisis revealed long-standing structural weaknesses in a small, democratic, wealthy, and economically successful country that raised questions about post COVID resilience and sustainability. This paper examines that experience by applying a “co-production” governance model that sees success in “crisis management” as the striking of a balance between government capacity and its legitimacy in the eyes of its people. Lessons are drawn in terms of Australia’s ability to tackle the ongoing transition out of COVID and future crises, by building systemic resilience and sustainability