Disasters and Democracy: The Politics Of Extreme Natural Events

Disasters and Democracy: The Politics Of Extreme Natural Events Review

In recent years, the number of presidential declarations of "major disasters" has skyrocketed. Such declarations make stricken areas eligible for federal emergency relief funds that greatly reduce their costs. But is federalizing the costs of disasters helping to lighten the overall burden of disasters or is it making matters worse? Does it remove incentives for individuals and local communities to take measures to protect themselves? Are people more likely to invest in property in hazardous locations in the belief that, if worse comes to worst, the federal government will bail them out?."Disasters and Democracy" addresses the political response to natural disasters, focusing specifically on the changing role of the federal government from distant observer to immediate responder and principal financier of disaster costs.

Implementing Innovation: Fostering Enduring Change in Environmental and Natural Resource Governance (Public Management and Change)

Implementing Innovation: Fostering Enduring Change in Environmental and Natural Resource Governance (Public Management and Change) Review

Over the past three decades, governments at the local, state, and federal levels have undertaken a wide range of bold innovations, often in partnership with nongovernmental organizations and communities, to try to address their environmental and natural resource management tasks. Many of these efforts have failed. Innovations, by definition, are transitory. How, then, can we establish new practices that endure? Toddi A. Steelman argues that the key to successful and long-lasting innovation must be a realistic understanding of the challenges that face it. She examines three case studies - land management in Colorado, watershed management in West Virginia, and timber management in New Mexico - and reveals specific patterns of implementation success and failure. Steelman challenges conventional wisdom about the role of individual entrepreneurs in innovative practice. She highlights the institutional obstacles that impede innovation and its longer term implementation, while offering practical insight in how enduring change might be achieved.

New Deal Planning: The National Resources Planning Board (RFF Library Collection: Natural Resource Management Set)

New Deal Planning: The National Resources Planning Board (RFF Library Collection: Natural Resource Management Set) Review

Originally published in 1981