Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-dnltx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-24T06:54:30.628Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Protecting People from Natural Disasters: Political Institutions and Ocean-Originated Hazards*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 December 2015

Alejandro Quiroz Flores
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Why do some leaders protect their citizens from natural disasters while others do not? This paper argues that leaders in large coalition systems provide more protection against natural disasters than leaders in small coalition systems. Yet, autocrats also provide large-scale disaster protection if members of their winning coalition are exposed to natural hazards. The paper tests these propositions by examining cross-country variation in the number of sea-level stations as a lower bound for protection against ocean-originated disasters. Empirical evidence indicates that leaders in large coalition systems deploy more sea-level stations than their counterparts in small coalition systems. The evidence also shows that if the national capital is close to the coast, thus exposing members of the ruling coalition to ocean-originated hazards, leaders across political systems install more sea-level stations.

Type
Original Articles
Information
Political Science Research and Methods , Volume 6 , Issue 1 , January 2018 , pp. 111 - 134
Copyright
© The European Political Science Association 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

Alejandro Quiroz Flores is Lecturer at the Department of Government, University of Essex, Wivenhoe Park, Colchester, CO4 3SQ (aquiro@essex.ac.uk). The author thanks Bruce Bueno de Mesquita, Alastair Smith, Thomas Plümper, several anonymous reviewers, the editor at Political Science Research and Methods, and the participants at the ISA 2014 Annual Meeting for helpful comments.

References

Achen, Christopher H., and Bartels, Larry M.. 2004. Blind Retrospection Electoral Responses to Drought, Flu, and Shark Attacks. Mimeo. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University.Google Scholar
Albala-Bertrand, Jose-Miguel. 1993. Political Economy of Large Natural Disasters . Oxford, UK: Clarendon.Google Scholar
Anbarci, Nejat, Escaleras, Monica, and Register, Charles A.. 2005. ‘Earthquake Fatalities: The Interaction of Nature and Political Economy’. Journal of Public Economics 89(9–10):1907–1933.Google Scholar
Bayer, Reşat. 2006. ‘Diplomatic Exchange Data Set, v2006.1’. Available at http://correlatesofwar.org, accessed 25 November 2014.Google Scholar
Bechtel, Michael M., and Hainmueller, Jens. 2011. ‘How Lasting Is Voter Gratitude? An Analysis of the Short- and Long-Term Electoral Returns to Beneficial Policy’. American Journal of Political Science 55(4):852–868.Google Scholar
Brambor, Thomas, Clark, William R., and Golder, Matt. 2006. ‘Understanding Interaction Models: Improving Empirical Analyses’. Political Analysis 14(1):63–82.Google Scholar
Brass, Paul. 1986. ‘The Political Uses of Crisis: The Bihar Famine of 1966–1967’. Journal of Asian Studies 45(2):245–267.Google Scholar
Bueno de Mesquita, Bruce, and Smith, Alastair. 2009. ‘Political Survival and Endogenous Institutional Change’. Comparative Political Studies 42(2):167–197.Google Scholar
Bueno de Mesquita, Bruce, Smith, Alastair, Siverson, Randolph M., and Morrow, James D.. 2003. The Logic of Political Survival. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Cavallo, Eduardo, and Noy, Ilan. 2009. The Economics of Natural Disasters. A Survey. Washington, D.C., USA: Inter-American Development Bank.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chen, Jowei. 2013. ‘Voter Partisanship and the Effect of Distributive Spending on Political Participation’. American Journal of Political Science 57(1):200–217.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dumiak, Michael. 2011. ‘Make or Breaker: Can a Tsunami Warning System Save Lives During an Earthquake?’ Scientific American, 14 April. Available at http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/can-tsunami-warning-system-save-lives-eartquake/.Google Scholar
Escaleras, Monica, and Register, Charles A.. 2008. ‘Mitigating Natural Disasters Through Collective Action: The Effectiveness of Tsunami Early Warnings’. Economic Journal 74(4):1017–1034.Google Scholar
Escaleras, Monica, Anbarci, Nejat, and Register, Charles A.. 2007. ‘Public Sector Corruption and Major Earthquakes: A Potentially Deadly Interaction’. Public Choice 132(1–2):209–230.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Garrett, Thomas A., and Sobel, Russell S.. 2003. ‘The Political Economy of FEMA Disaster Payments’. Economic Inquiry 41(3):496–509.Google Scholar
Gasper, John T., and Reeves, Andrew. 2011. ‘Make it Rain? Retrospection and the Attentive Electorate in the Context of Natural Disasters’. American Journal of Political Science 55(2):340–355.Google Scholar
Geddes, Barbara, Wright, Joseph, and Frantz, Erica. 2014. ‘Autocratic Breakdown and Regime Transitions: A New Data Set’. Perspectives on Politics 12(2):313–331.Google Scholar
Gillis, Justin. 2014. ‘Tide Gauges Needed for Research Are Often Victims of Storms’, The New York Times, 13 January. Available at http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/14/science/tide-gauges-needed-for-research-are-often-victims-of-storms.html.Google Scholar
Guha-Sapir, Debarati, Hargitt, David, and Hoyois, Philippe. 2004. Thirty Years of Natural Disasters. 1974–2003: The Numbers. Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium: Presses Universitaires de Louvain.Google Scholar
Healy, Andrew, and Malhotra, Neil. 2009. ‘Myopic Voters and Natural Disaster Policy’. American Political Science Review 103(3):387–406.Google Scholar
Healy, Andrew, and Malhotra, Neil. 2010. ‘Random Events, Economic Losses, and Retrospective Voting: Implications for Democratic Competence’. Quarterly Journal of Political Science 5(2):193–208.Google Scholar
Kahn, Matthew. 2005. ‘The Death Toll from Natural Disasters: The Role of Income, Geography, and Institutions’. Review of Economics and Statistics 87(2):271–284.Google Scholar
Keefer, Philip, Neumayer, Eric, and Plümper, Thomas. 2011. ‘Earthquake Propensity and the Politics of Mortality Prevention’. World Development 39(9):1530–1541.Google Scholar
Keller, Edmond J. 1992. ‘Drought, War, and the Politics of Famine in Ethiopia and Eritrea’. Journal of Modern African Studies 30(4):609–624.Google Scholar
Malhotra, Neil, and Kuo, Alexander G.. 2009. ‘Emotions as Moderators of Information Cue Use. Citizen Attitudes Toward Hurricane Katrina’. American Politics Research 37(2):301–326.Google Scholar
McGranahan, Gordon, Balk, Deborah, and Anderson, Bridget. 2007. ‘The Rising Tide: Assessing the Risks of Climate Change and Human Settlements in Low Elevation Coastal Zones’. Environment and Urbanization 19(1):17–37.Google Scholar
Monastersky, Richard. 2013. ‘Tsunami Forecasting: The Next Wave’. Nature 483:144–146.Google Scholar
Mustafa, Daanish. 2003. ‘Reinforcing Vulnerability? Disaster Relief, Recovery, and Response to the 2001 Flood in Rawalpindi, Pakistan’. Environmental Hazards 5(3–4):71–82.Google Scholar
National Geophysical Data Center/World Data Service. 2013. Global Historical Tsunami Database. National Geophysical Data Center, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. doi:10.7289/V5PN93H7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. 2010. Budget Estimates. Congressional Submission. Washington, D.C., USA: NOAA.Google Scholar
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. 2013. National Coastal Population Report. Population Trends from 1970 to 2020. NOAA State of the Coast Report Series. Washington, D.C., USA: NOAA.Google Scholar
Neumayer, Eric, Plümper, Thomas, and Barthel, Fabian. 2014. ‘The Political Economy of Natural Disaster Damage’. Global Environmental Change 24(1):8–19.Google Scholar
Pelling, Mark. 1999. ‘The Political Ecology of Food Hazard in Urban Guyana’. Geoforum 30(3):249–261.Google Scholar
Quiroz Flores, Alejandro, and Smith, Alastair. 2013. ‘Leader Survival and Natural Disasters’. British Journal of Political Science 43(4):821–843.Google Scholar
Reeves, Andrew. 2011. ‘Political Disaster. Unilateral Powers, Electoral Incentives, and Presidential Disaster Declarations’. Journal of Politics 73(4):1–10.Google Scholar
Regnier, Eva. 2008. ‘Doing Something About the Weather’. Omega 36(1):22–32.Google Scholar
Sen, Amartya. 1983. Poverty and Famines: An Essay on Entitlement and Deprivation. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Sen, Amartya. 1991. ‘Public Action to Remedy Hunger’. Interdisciplinary Science Review 16(4):324–336.Google Scholar
Smith, Alastair. 2008. ‘The Perils of Unearned Income’. Journal of Politics 70(3):780–793.Google Scholar
Stromberg, David. 2007. ‘Natural Disasters, Economic Development, and Humanitarian Aid’. Journal of Economic Perspectives 21(3):199–222.Google Scholar
Sylves, Richard, and Buzas, Zoltan I.. 2007. ‘Presidential Disaster Declaration Decisions, 1953–2003: What Influences Odds of Approval?’. State and Local Government Review 39(1):3–15.Google Scholar
Toya, Hideki, and Skidmore, Mark. 2007. ‘Economic Development and the Impacts of Natural Disasters’. Economics Letters 94(1):20–25.Google Scholar
UNESCO. 1985. Manual on Sea Level Measurement and Interpretation. Volume I- Basic Procedures, Manuals and Guides 14, Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission. Birkenhead, UK: Permanent Service for Mean Sea Level.Google Scholar
World Bank. 2010. Natural Hazards, Unnatural Disasters: The Economics of Effective Prevention. Washington, D.C.: World Bank Publications.Google Scholar