Disaster Policy Governance

In the chapter eight of “Policy, Performance and Management in Governance and Intergovernmental Relations”, Ongaro, Massey, Holzer, and Wayenberg compare the US and the European Union approach to disaster management at a multi-level governance.

As disaster agencies are dispersed across the country, federal agencies face more challenges in coordinating and communicating within a complex system. In this system, it becomes increasingly difficult to identify responsibility and authority as crisis emerges.

The reasons for dispersing agencies are different in the US and the EU. In the US, the motivation driving the decentralization of disaster management is security, especially in the context of the Cold War. In the EU, the reason is transferable ideas as countries have had different approaches to address similar disasters.

According to FEMA, the main challenge of operating in a highly dispersed decentralized system and traditionally powerful national, state, and local authorities is the creation of regional governance structures able to shape policy development and implementation.

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