Uriel Rosenthal

Crisis Decision Making The Centralization Thesis Revisited

This essay reconsiders the well-known thesis that, under conditions of crisis, administrative decision making becomes centralized. It discusses the theoretical and administrative underpinnings of this thesis and focuses on the role of small groups in crisis decision making, central government intervention in crisis situations, and crisis government doctrines. Using findings from recent comparative case research in crisis management, alternative patterns of governmental response to crises are outlined. These include formal and informal decentralization, non-decision making, and paralysis. This article concludes with a set of hypotheses that outline the conditions for the emergence of alternative structural patterns in coping with crises and a call for more contingent and reflective thinking about crisis management issues.

September 11: Public Administration and the Study of Crises and Crisis Management

This article applies new insights in the study of crises and crisis management to the case of the September 11 terrorist attacks. Such new insights include the notion of crisis as process, the transnational dimensions of contemporary crises, the politization of crises, the increasing importance of the media, and the revision of some conventional wisdoms of crisis management. The article pays specific attention to the role of public officials and public agencies. It explores the contributions they made in the immediate response to the crisis as well as in the subsequent periods. It is stressed that the sheer inconceivability of September 11 may indicate the risk of totally new threats. With the possible exception of the intelligence community, September 11 has fostered the reputation of public administration. This will put extra pressure on public officials and their agencies to avert and effectively cope with new threats.

Experts and Decision Makers in Crisis Situations

an important input from expert advisors in the decision-making process. This article analyzes the key dynamics of advice giving in a crisis context. It identifies a number of behavioral patterns that affect both decision makers and advisers in crisis events and discusses their impact on the advice-decision relationship. On one hand, expert advisers consulted during crisis situations should be alert to individual differences in the performance of decision makers, the highly informal and improvised nature of decision making, (dis)information politics, and stress-induced behavioral pathologies-all of which may hamper the effectiveness of communicating their expertise. Likewise, crisis decision makers should take into account that crisis advisers, on their part, are not immune to some of the organizational, political, and psychological pressures that

Inter‐organizational policy processes in disaster management

Discusses the efficiency of disaster management policies and programmes in Australia. Argues that there are long‐standing deficiencies in strategic and operational planning and forecasting approaches. Urges more co‐operation and co‐ordination between the various emergency services. Discusses the development of terrestrial and space technologies which could be used in disaster management.

Flood Response and Crisis Management in Western Europe

1 Flood response and disaster management: a comparative perspective.- 1 The 1993 and 1995 floods in Western Europe.- 2 Risk communication and warning.- 3 The organization of disaster response.- 4 Recovery and damage compensation.- 5 Study design.- Notes.- 2 Flood management in France.- 1 Introduction.- 2 Warning process and risk information.- 3 Disaster response.- 4 Recovery and damage compensation.- 5 Concluding observations.- Notes.- 3 Flood management in Belgium.- 1 Introduction.- 2 The 1993 and 1995 riverine floods: an overview of events.- 3 Disaster management in Belgium.- 4 Risk communication.- 5 Disaster response.- 6 Recovery and damage compensation.- Notes.- 4 Flood management in the Netherlands.- 1 Introduction.- 2 The 1993 and 1995 riverine floods: an overview of events.- 3 Risk communication.- 4 Disaster response.- 5 Damage compensation.- Notes.- 5 Flood management in Germany.- 1 Introduction.- 2 The 1993 and 1995 riverine floods: an overview of events.- 3 Water management and disaster response in Germany.- 4 Risk communication.- 5 Disaster response.- 6 Recovery and compensation.- Notes.- 6 Flood response dynamics: Local resilience and administrative flexibility.- 1 Introduction: a constrained comparison.- 2 Risk communication: flood forecasting and warning.- 3 The organization and implementation of disaster response.- 4 Managing evacuations.- 5 The politics of damage compensation.- 6 Organizational learning.- Notes.- Appendix 1 Sources.- Appendix 2 Floods in Western Europe.- List of contributors.

Whither the Study of Governmental Politics in Foreign Policymaking

Editors Note: Unlike previous essay reviews in this journal, this review is a symposium with a number of different experts reflecting on governmental politics from a variety of perspectives. Eric Stern and Bertjan Verbeek both organized and have served as editors of the symposium. They wrote the introduction and conclusion to the piece. The various authors represent three different disciplines—political science, psychology, and public administration—and come from four countries. Several are involved in the application of this knowledge in collaboration with a government agency. All are concerned with where research on governmental politics has been and where it can and should go in the future.

Flood Management in the Netherlands

This chapter provides an analysis of the 1993 and 1995 riverine floods in the southern provinces of the Netherlands. In 1993, flooding occurred mainly in the river Meuse and remained confined largely to the southernmost province of Limburg, whereas the 1995 floods occurred in all of the main rivers in the Netherlands and affected six provinces.

Simulation-oriented scenarios

This editorial introduction advocates the need to learn from experiences with crisis management in enhancing crisis preparedness and crisis management capabilities. It introduces the concepts of crisis, crisis management, and crisis decision making and goes on to present the method of reconstructive logic as a method of promoting learning about crises. In particular, it stresses the importance of developing alternative scenarios of crisis development and crisis management on the basis of empirical reconstruction of historical cases. Using “what if” methodology may challenge analysts and practitioners alike to achieve a more sophisticated understanding of crisis events and how they may be handled.

Decision Making in Technological Emergencies

There is a peculiar bifurcation in popular notions of government. On the one hand, people unite in the “struggle against bureaucracy”. Indeed, along with the universal fear of nuclear war, this is one of the few concerns shared by the people and political leaders in different political and social regimes. On the other hand, there is a rock-bottom belief that it is the state and its agencies which should protect the people from being struck by disasters, turmoil and terrorism. Moreover, if the state is unable to shield its citizens against such adversity, it should at least be the initiator of emergency management through quick and resolute decision making. It is the thesis of the present chapter that normal suspicions about governments’ inadequacies might be profitably applied to disasters as well as to other political emergency situations.

Flood Response and Disaster Management: A Comparative Perspective

During 1993 and 1995, several countries in Western Europe experienced major floods. Inundation of large cities and municipalities throughout France, Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands disrupted community life for several weeks, resulting in substantial damage to corporations, farms and households.1 The floods demonstrated once again the continued vulnerability of modern societies to natural hazards. Although vast amounts of money have been spent on the management of river systems and coastlines, using more and more advanced techniques, the forces of nature still act in ways that both surprise and harm communities. For example, the floods of 1993 and 1995 were mostly provoked by enduring and heavy rainfall. More generally, however, the effectiveness of flood prevention measures has been partly offset by parallel developments increasing the susceptibility to floods. These include the creeping erosion of upstream mountain slopes and the sometimes extensive use of flood plain areas for housing and industry. Flood plain management in these countries is often a disjointed process where diffuse networks of authorities and community actors seek to prevent and mitigate flooding yet to some extent accept the safety tradeoffs resulting from their pursuit of socio-economic development in high risk areas.2 As a result, floods are most likely to remain a recurrent phenomenon along many of Western Europe’s main rivers, placing a premium on effective disaster warning and response systems along their trajectory.