The Politics of Disaster Response: COVID-19 and Beyond

Session Submission Type: Full Paper Panel

Session Description

After a disaster, governments and non-state actors are tasked with assisting populations and rebuilding affected areas. The way in which they do so is not always effective. Yet, why some post-disaster responses are more successful than others, and what the role of government policy is, is still poorly understood. Therefore, this panel addresses the effects of policy choices in response to disasters, ranging from declaring a disaster an emergency, to investing in infrastructure, cooperating with international organizations, and influencing vaccine uptake.
In the first paper, Allison Grossman explores the effect disaster affected countries’ government’s policy has on funds donated to respond to the emergency. She finds that governments are more likely to classify a disaster as an emergency in the case of rapid onset disasters, while they are less likely to do so for slow onset disasters. Further, she demonstrates that international donors are more likely to assist governments in their disaster response when the disaster has been classified as an emergency. In the second paper, Daniel Aldrich explores the consequences of governments investing the vast majority of resources dedicated to rebuilding post-disaster in gray infrastructures such as dams and seawalls, rather than in social infrastructure such as parks and public schools. He demonstrates the effects of such uneven investment on outcomes such as suicide, migration and crime rates. In the third paper, Valerie de Koeijer focuses on the effects of post-disaster response on gender equality. She builds on research showing that women are often overrepresented among those worst affected by disaster. She finds that relationships between governments and international organizations influence gender inequality via three factors: government restrictions, state-international organization integration, and international organizations’ understanding of the local context. In the fourth and final paper, Liz Shanahan and colleagues zoom in on individuals’ behavior. They look at the effect of narrative and non-narrative messages on US citizens’ intention to get the COVID-19 vaccine. They aim to understand how visual narrativity can help reduce the risk of COVID-19, and ultimately how it can help to reduce vaccine refusal and hesitancy.
Together, these papers contribute to the growing literature on the politics of disaster, and each have policy implications for government officials and beyond. While a lot of the disaster literature has focused on the pandemic response, this panel brings research on the COVID-19 response together with research on other disasters, for instance extreme weather events such as hurricanes, and flooding. The geographical focus of the papers in this panel is also varied, including the United States, Japan, and Dominica. This approach encourages conversations across various types of disaster responses around the world, to see whether lessons learned in disaster response in one type and/or geographical location can apply to others.

Sub Unit

• Related Groups / Disasters and Crises Related Group

Individual Presentations

• What’s the Emergency? How Recipient Governments Shape Donor Aid Allocation - Allison Namias Grossman, Stanford University

• Bridges to Nowhere? An Investigation of Physical vs. Social Infrastructure - Daniel P. Aldrich, Northeastern University

• Who Holds the Reins? Gender, and International and Local Disaster Response - Valerie de Koeijer, Johns Hopkins University

• Estimating the Effect of Narratives and Imagery on COVID-19 Vaccine Uptake - Elizabeth Ann Shanahan, Montana State University; Deserai Anderson Crow, University of Colorado Denver; Meng Li; Kristin Taylor, Wayne State University; Elizabeth Koebele, University of Nevada, Reno; Rob A. DeLeo, Bentley University; Elizabeth Ann Albright, Duke University

• Social Distancing of Pandemic Proportions - Courtney Page-Tan, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University WW; Summer Marion, Bentley University

Chair

• Thomas A. Birkland North Carolina State University

Discussants

• Scott Watson University of Victoria

• Gaea Morales