Political Effects Of Hurricane Katrina
THE POLITCAL STORM
How Hurricane Katrina Exposed Political Chaos
On August 29, 2005, the United States witnessed a catastrophic natural disaster that demolished not only homes and roads, but lives. Hurricanes Katrina hit the Gulf Coast in Louisiana ranking at a category 3 on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale, maintaining winds of 100-140 miles per hour and stretching 400 miles across. What experts can agree on is that there was over an estimated $100 billion in damage, but what they cannot agree on is if some of the damage and lives lost were avoidable (History.com Staff, 2009). The video discusses how different political actors responded to the event as a whole. Political actors are individuals (citizens, states, non-governmental …show more content…
Patronage is the ability for officials to make appointments to offices and confer grants licenses, or special favors (Lowi, et. all, 2014). Before FEMA, natural disaster relief was the responsibility of more than 100 federal agencies (Smith, 2005); however, due to pressure from state governors for better response time and better overall responses, President Jimmy Carter established FEMA in 1979 (Smith, 2005). Unfortunately, the lack of natural disasters during that time stimulated multiple scandals and assisted with making FEMA the “patronage parking lot”. This lack of natural disasters made it easier for presidents, like George Bush and Ronald Reagan, to appoint persons with little to no emergency planning experience at all. Federalism was another government institution explained within this article; federalism is the division of power and functions between the national and state government. There is a great debate on who is at fault for more action not being taken sooner; however, it is more per view of authority. Even though the reserved powers clause in the constitution reserves the rights to the states to make decision that are specified in the constitution, it is still the job of the federal government to assist and aide states when they have requested it. With dual federalism, the two a supposed to work congruently; however, this is not an exemplary example of the federal government collaborating well with the state government. This does accurately represent the political culture in several instances. A major example is the racial/social class discrimination is evident within the government working. For years, there has been an improper representation and lack of care for minorities and lower class citizens because they’re not wealthy and therefore cannot hold a significant impact in political
How Hurricane Katrina Exposed Political Chaos
On August 29, 2005, the United States witnessed a catastrophic natural disaster that demolished not only homes and roads, but lives. Hurricanes Katrina hit the Gulf Coast in Louisiana ranking at a category 3 on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale, maintaining winds of 100-140 miles per hour and stretching 400 miles across. What experts can agree on is that there was over an estimated $100 billion in damage, but what they cannot agree on is if some of the damage and lives lost were avoidable (History.com Staff, 2009). The video discusses how different political actors responded to the event as a whole. Political actors are individuals (citizens, states, non-governmental …show more content…
Patronage is the ability for officials to make appointments to offices and confer grants licenses, or special favors (Lowi, et. all, 2014). Before FEMA, natural disaster relief was the responsibility of more than 100 federal agencies (Smith, 2005); however, due to pressure from state governors for better response time and better overall responses, President Jimmy Carter established FEMA in 1979 (Smith, 2005). Unfortunately, the lack of natural disasters during that time stimulated multiple scandals and assisted with making FEMA the “patronage parking lot”. This lack of natural disasters made it easier for presidents, like George Bush and Ronald Reagan, to appoint persons with little to no emergency planning experience at all. Federalism was another government institution explained within this article; federalism is the division of power and functions between the national and state government. There is a great debate on who is at fault for more action not being taken sooner; however, it is more per view of authority. Even though the reserved powers clause in the constitution reserves the rights to the states to make decision that are specified in the constitution, it is still the job of the federal government to assist and aide states when they have requested it. With dual federalism, the two a supposed to work congruently; however, this is not an exemplary example of the federal government collaborating well with the state government. This does accurately represent the political culture in several instances. A major example is the racial/social class discrimination is evident within the government working. For years, there has been an improper representation and lack of care for minorities and lower class citizens because they’re not wealthy and therefore cannot hold a significant impact in political