Legislators Do Not Harness Voter Support for Disaster Preparedness

• In Event: Advocacy, Voting, and Mobilization

Abstract

Natural disasters are worsening because of climate change; however, elected officials have not adequately invested in programs that would enhance climate adaptation and disaster preparedness. Federal spending and election outcomes have been taken to suggest policymakers’ failure to support long-term preparedness results from a lack of interest in disaster preparedness among voters, a pervasive preference among voters for more spending on disaster relief than preparedness, and a belief that voters will not reward elected officials for investing in preparedness. However, our national survey experiment on state legislator and public preferences shows the public is equally interested in disaster preparedness and relief and that both the public and legislators are open to increases in spending on preparedness. Yet legislators do not harness voter support for preparedness; they report being less responsive to attentive voters’ preferences on preparedness than relief. Climate adaptation can occur by tapping into public willingness to support disaster preparedness with highly visible projects that address sources of individual vulnerability.

Authors

• Sarah Anderson, University of California, Santa Barbara

• Rob A. DeLeo, Bentley University

• Kristin Taylor, Wayne State University