Intergovernmental Challenges of Homeland Security: Explaining Local Government Preparedness Efforts

“国土安全的政府间挑战：解释地方准备工作”项目摘要本项目将审查地方政府在执行国土安全政策方面的准备工作。实质性的决策问题是地方政府的备灾能力和承诺(规划活动、资源分配、人员培训等)。在自然或技术危害方面，美国各地的情况往往非常不均衡。这一点很重要，因为有效的国土安全必然依赖于地方政府积极主动地将潜在的恐怖事件作为一种危险来处理；如果一些地方政府或许多地方政府不愿意或无法主动采取主动，那么国家可能更容易受到攻击。需要探讨的一个关键问题是：如何准确解释地方政府为防范恐怖主义带来的危害所做的努力？为了解决这一问题，该项目以先前的试点研究(2004年3月进行)为基础，通过对地方政府官员进行的全国邮寄调查，收集了地方一级国土安全准备情况的信息。该项目通过以下方式扩展了这项研究：建立一个扩大的样本框架，包括市和县官员；扩大关于几个关键问题的调查工具；收集一套更完整的客观业绩指标；对不同类型的城市进行几个案例研究，以更深入地解释地方政府的准备工作。该研究项目的意义在于，它解决了在联邦系统中，哪些因素决定了有效的危险管理政策，在联邦系统中，国家、州和地方政府面临的决策激励往往不同。对该项目的期望是，它将确定一组具体的因果因素，这些因素一般解释地方政府的灾害管理准备工作，特别是解释国土安全活动。

"Intergovernmental Challenges of Homeland Security: Explaining Local Preparedness Efforts"PROJECT ABSTRACTThis project will examine local governments' preparedness efforts in implementing homeland security policies. The substantive policymaking problem is that local government capacity for, and commitment to, preparedness (planning activities, placement of resources, personnel training, etc.) on natural or technological hazards is often very uneven across the United States. This is important because effective homeland security necessarily relies on local governments to be proactive in dealing with potential terror incidents as a hazard; if some, or many, local governments are either unwilling or unable to be proactive, then the nation is likely more vulnerable to attack. A key question to explore is: what exactly explains local government effort in preparing for terrorism as a hazard? To address the question, this project builds on an earlier pilot study (conducted in March 2004) which gathered information on homeland security preparedness at the local level through a nationwide mail survey of local government officials. This project extends that study by: constructing an expanded sample frame that includes both city and county officials; expanding the survey instrument on several key issues; gathering a more complete set of objective performance indicators; and conducting several case studies of different types of cities to provide greater depth to the explanation of local government preparedness efforts. The significance of the research project is that it addresses what factors determine effective hazards management policy in a federal system where, very often, the policymaking incentives facing national and state and local governments diverge. The expectation for this project is that it will identify a specific set of causal factors that explain hazard management preparedness at the local government generally, and homeland security activities specifically.