Winning Legitimacy and Dodging Blame: How Government Communication Shapes Media Sentiments and Responsibility Attribution in Consensus Democracies

ABSTRACT How do governments' discursive credit‐claiming and blame‐deflection strategies shape perceived policy legitimacy in times of crisis? Despite the importance of legitimacy in conflictual times, systematic analyses of officeholders' credit‐claiming and blame‐deflection strategies and their effect on perceived legitimacy are still rare. To fill this research gap, I operationalise perceived output legitimacy using media sentiments towards COVID‐19 crisis management over time. Through qualitative content analysis, I link media sentiments and responsibility attribution to credit‐claiming and blame‐deflection strategies used by the Swiss and German governments during media conferences. The findings indicate that perceived output legitimacy can be increased through credit claiming while excessive blame shifting decreases output legitimacy if societal problems remain unsolved. However, officeholders in consensus democracies with complex governance structures can shape the perception of responsibilities while increasing input legitimacy. These findings are relevant in the broader context of accountability and trust in governments.