Vulnerability and Resilience in Local Government: Assessing the Strength of Performance Regimes

Making Connections: Performance Regimes and Extreme Events

“…The logic behind local performance regimes in emergency management is sufficiently plausible to warrant a test (Chenoweth and Clarke ). Comparative case studies of five jurisdictions suggest that regimes have indeed been constructed by local emergency management officials but that they vary in their durability (Bowman and Parsons ). A larger‐ N , quantitative analysis will provide a more rigorous test of the utility of regime theory in understanding the development of collaborative networks.…”

“…Similarly, we would expect vulnerable counties to engage in collaborative activities with numerous stakeholders, but the amount of interaction is likely to differ. As noted earlier, a county's own capacity likely affects the degree to which it develops collaborative ties with other stakeholders, such that those with sufficient capacity develop weaker ties to other actors (Bowman and Parsons ). Conversely, officials with fewer resources likely have greater incentive to construct a stronger performance regime by involving other participants (McGuire and Silvia ).…”

“…On one hand, this is a relatively surprising finding, as one might expect risk to motivate local officials to build a network of support with surrounding counties. On the other hand, “riskier” counties reaching upward for support from state and federal agencies may drive this finding, or counties that experience frequent hazards may simply have sufficient emergency preparedness operations in place to effectively and autonomously respond to extreme events (Bowman and Parsons ). The latter interpretation finds some support from the effects of fiscal health, that is, counties with consistent revenue surpluses less frequently build partnerships and less frequently give responsibility to develop new ideas to nearby jurisdictions.…”

"COVID-19: Network Effectiveness of Intermunicipal Self-Organized Response in Chile"

“…Local governments are the first and most significant points of contact between citizens and their governments so they have considerable responsibility in ensuring that their communities can deal with any kind of disaster and in managing critical duties associated with the emergency (Waugh 1994;Schneider, 1995;Caruson and MacManus, 2006;Waugh and Streib, 2006;Bowman and Parsons, 2009;French and Raymond, 2009;French, 2011;Dzigbede et al, 2020). Additionally, municipalities often lack the administrative capacity, in terms of resources and specialization in emergency management, to implement an effective disaster policy in line with their responsibilities (Cigler, 2007;Waugh and Streib, 2006;Somers and Svara, 2009;French, 2011).…”

“…A potential solution to this dilemma is for local officials to build collaborative relationships to maximize the agency's capacity and address mounting concerns regarding risk, vulnerability and resilience (Savitch, 2003;Bowman and Parsons, 2009). In this case, local officials voluntarily negotiate and coordinate solutions with officials in neighboring jurisdictions (Waugh, 1994).…”