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.

http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=DiKBokeKF5UC&oi=fnd&pg=PA114&dq=%22national+policy%22+%22civil+defense%22+disaster+management&ots=ceRLUOu3o9&sig=nlRTiIc_OJGAmnE-8DV0KQirtLc#v=onepage&q&f=falsethe

Government Size and Authority

In "Crisis and Leviathan" Robert Higgis points out that the measure of government size should not derive from expenditure, employment, or taxation rates but from authority and how it discourages the private sector to engage in new activities.

The US government hired more and increased investments during economic and political crisis. However, public money injected in the national economy did not prevent businessmen from deciding on how to best allocate resources.

Big Government is about authority. It takes place when public officials accumulate excessive power and this situation does not allow the private sector to participate in economic decision-making process.

As Higgins points out, the source of authority are "executive orders, statutes, court decisions, and the directives of regulatory agencies".

http://www.independent.org/store/book_detail.asp?bookID=15

Somalia: Governance Case Study

This article from The New York Times about the lack of public governance in Somalia depicts the economic benefits and challenges of doing business and thriving as society.

If competition is fierce and prices low, public services inexist and security privately owned in Mogadishu, the capital.

Somalis have learned to make money without government's help but say they need coordination to ensure the provision of basic services like education, health and infrastructure.

Somalis are willing to pay taxes to reduce the social costs costs of doing business in a headless and unpredictable context.

The real challenges, however, seems to be: How big should be the government? Too large may lead to well-known cases of corruption. Too tiny might not be enough to address all public problems faced by Somalis.

The hurdles of the most eastern African country also raises other side questions: How effective are United Nations actions? What is needed to form a government? Why Somalis cannot shape one?

https://laulima.hawaii.edu/access/content/group/MAN.87410.201130/CourseReadings/Fisher-Somalia.htm