Citation

Blackstone EA, Hakim S, Meehan B. Eval. Program Plann. 2017; 64: 57-68.

Affiliation

Campbell School of Business, Berry College, Mt. Berry, Georgia. Electronic address: bmeehan@berry.edu.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2017, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.evalprogplan.2017.05.014

PMID

28535428

Abstract

This paper proposes a regional competitive governance and management of response and recovery from disasters. It presents problems experienced in major disasters, analyzes the failures, and suggests how a competitive system that relies on private and volunteer regional leaders, personnel, and capital can improve preparation, response and recovery efforts over the existing government system. A Public Choice approach is adopted to explain why government often fails, and how regional governance may be socially more efficient than the existing federal- state-local funded and managed disaster system. The paper suggests that the federal role might change from both funding and supplying aid in disasters to merely funding disaster recovery efforts. When a disaster occurs, available businesses and government resources in the region can be utilized under a competitive system. These resources could replace existing federal and state inventories and emergency personnel. An independent regionally controlled and managed council, which also develops its own financial resources, and local volunteer leaders are key for success. The paper suggests a new planning method that utilizes the statistical Factor Analysis methodology to derive an efficient organizational and functional model to confront disasters.

Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Language: en

Keywords

Disaster response; Polycentricity; Private-Public Partnership (PPP)