RAPID: Non-State Action and Public-Private Coordination During Times of Crisis

自然灾害给政府和公共资源带来巨大压力。在这样的危机之后，私人和非营利组织？包括美国红十字会、食品银行、企业和宗教团体？在填补政府提供服务能力的空白方面发挥关键作用。了解这些组织在危机情况下的行动和恢复工作对于为未来的自然灾害做好准备至关重要。然而，对他们的作用以及他们与联邦、州和地方政府之间的协调的研究非常有限。重点关注飓风哈维和厄玛的后果，该项目将解决政治学领域的重要问题。特别是，它将阐明组织如何识别政府服务中的差距，他们如何与政府协调他们的努力，以及为什么这些努力证明是有效的或无效的。从这项研究中得出的结论将有助于在今后发生自然灾害时改善政府与私人/非营利组织之间的协调。非国家行为体对国家能力的补充在美国是一个反复出现的现象，尽管研究不足。虽然雅各布·哈克（Jacob Hacker）等学者探讨了非国家实体在提供社会福利方面的作用，但大多数关于非国家提供服务的研究都集中在全球南方的不发达国家。在这个项目中，我们通过解决两个关键问题，将学术注意力转移到私人提供者的作用上：1)在危机时期，非国家实体如何识别和应对政府应对能力的差距？2)非国家实体如何与政府协调他们的努力，为什么这些努力被证明是有效的或无效的？我们通过在德克萨斯州和佛罗里达州的受灾地区进行三波半结构化的精英访谈来解决这些问题。基于既定的政治学方法和方法，我们的分析将依赖于对访谈数据的编码和计算检查以及协调模式的映射。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Natural disasters place immense stress on governments and public resources. Following such crises, private and non-profit organizations?including the American Red Cross, food banks, businesses, and religious groups?play a crucial role in filling gaps in the ability of government to provide services. Understanding the actions of such organizations during crisis situations and recovery efforts is critical to preparing for future natural disasters. Nonetheless, there is only limited research into their role and their coordination with federal, state, and local governments. Focusing on the aftermath of hurricanes Harvey and Irma, this project will address important questions in the field of political science. In particular, it will illuminate how organizations identify gaps in government services, how they coordinate their efforts with government, and why these efforts prove effective or ineffective. The conclusions drawn from this research will contribute to improved coordination between government and private/non-profit organizations during future natural disasters.The supplementation of state capacity by non-state actors is a recurring, although understudied, phenomenon within the United States. While scholars such as Jacob Hacker have explored the role of non-state entities in providing social welfare benefits, most research on the non-state provision of services has focused on underdeveloped states in the Global South. In this project, we redirect scholarly attention to the role of private providers by addressing two key questions: 1) During times of crisis, how do non-state entities identify and react to gaps in government capacity to respond? 2) How do non-state entities work to coordinate their efforts with those of government, and why do these efforts prove effective or ineffective? We address these questions by conducting three waves of semi- structured, elite interviews in affected areas of both Texas and Florida. Grounded in established political science methods and approaches, our analysis will rely on the coding and computational examination of interview data and the mapping of coordination patterns.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.