The Impact of Disasters on Politics: How Resilience Influence Disaster Requests and Voting in Communities

The escalating frequency of disasters in the United States has heightened the demand forfederal assistance, typically initiated by the state governor. The examination of communityresilience, defined as the ability to mitigate and recover from disasters, remains unexploredwithin the realm of political science. This leads to two pivotal inquiries: firstly, how doescommunity resilience shape a governor's decision-making process in soliciting federal disasteraid? Secondly, what impact does community resilience exert on voter behavior? Existingresearch has predominantly delved into statewide repercussions, neglecting the nuanced localeffects. Addressing this gap, I modify community resilience metrics from established scholarshipusing data from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Census Bureau.These metrics are then employed to assess the likelihood of a governor requesting disasterassistance. Additionally, I introduce a novel measure of the incumbent party vote share toscrutinize how resilience influences voting patterns at the county level. The findings underscorethat resilience significantly influences the probability of governors seeking disaster assistance,with a notable correlation between these requests and counties that supported the incumbentparty in the preceding election. This relationship, however, is contingent on the severity ofdamage within a given county. In the second analysis focusing on retrospective voting, theresults reveal that various forms of resilience distinctly impact the adjusted vote share for theincumbent party in counties. This research contributes valuable insights into the intricateinterplay between community resilience, political decision-making, and voter behavior, sheddinglight on both state and local dynamics in the face of disasters.

Grantor dc:publisher

University of Alabama Libraries

Year dc:date.issued

2024

Author dc:creator

• Thomas, Matthew Alan

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Smith, Joseph

Contributors dc:contributor

• Fording, Richard
• Ji, Hyunjung
• Wagner, Regina
• Williamson, Anne

• Community Resilience
• Gubernatorial Politics
• Particularism
• Retrospective Voting

Statement dc:rights

• All rights reserved by the author unless otherwise indicated.

Language dc:language.iso

en_US, English

Dc Identifier Other

1053387

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:ir.ua.edu:123456789/13825