FROM NATIONAL BRANDING TO ADMINISTRATIVE REBRANDING: SYMBOLIC LEGITIMACY AND PUBLIC IDENTITY MANAGEMENT IN SLOVAKIA

Abstract

Background: Place and nation branding research increasingly links identity, participation, legitimacy, and public value, but less attention has been paid to the continuity between national branding campaigns and later symbolic interventions within the same national identity field. Aims: This article examines how selected top-down national branding and public-sector identity interventions in Slovakia construct, communicate, and institutionally support symbolic legitimacy. Methods: The study uses a qualitative case-study design based on document analysis and qualitative content analysis of official materials from 2016–2026. Sample: The corpus includes national branding and tourism communication materials, official documents on the new arrangement of the Slovak national anthem, legal and institutional materials concerning STVR, and an exploratory survey among 572 university students. Results: National branding appears broad and communicatively portable; the anthem intervention reveals limits of formal recommendation in a symbolically dense domain; and the STVR case shows that legal and organisational restructuring does not automatically stabilise public identity. Conclusions: Formal authorisation alone is insufficient for symbolically legitimate public identity management. Implications: Public identity interventions require cultural grounding, transparent justification, institutional continuity, and socially recognisable representational fit.