Abstract
The chapter focuses on the so-called swine flu (H1N1 influenza) which resulted in global pandemics declared by the WHO in 2009/2010. Epidemics are, on the one hand, an undisputable part of civil security, on the other hand, they challenge the most common view of disaster management, which typically focuses on technical and natural disasters in a narrow sense only.
The chapter builds on empirical data for 22 European countries, covering both old and new member states, as well as all geographical regions. The advantage of studying the H1N1 influenza is that it creates a "natural experiment" exposing many countries to the same challenge at the same time.
Framing the findings in the theoretical literature on legitimacy in policymaking, it is studied how the response to the crisis varied across the countries and regions in Europe. Both outputs and "throughput" of the national policymaking and response are examined, drawing implications for the legitimacy of the official conduct in a situation where majority of states were perceived to overreact vis-a-vis to the crisis.