Q1. Which of the three perspectives do you find most persuasive? Least persuasive? Support your answer. Most Persuasive perspective I mostly agree with the perspective of Stephen M. Griffin since the national government clearly needs to become more directive in numerous areas. In this case, the government assisted in funding the construction of the levees and communication technology. However, this technology needed up ailing New Orleans completely (Shane & Lipton, 2005). Griffin asserts that the problem with federalism is that there was little to no functionality and collaboration within the various government levels. This problem led to the unpreparedness of the hurricane disaster in New Orleans (Starling, 2010). The different government …show more content…
She stated that the governmental response of Hurricane Katrina was not a complete failure as it also had some significant successes. These successes occurred when a foundation had been laid for cooperation between intergovernmental organizations. Such organizations include the National Guard that performed large-scale mobilization of survivors (Starling, 2010). However, the failures included the inability of New Orleans to limit its growth, its lack of flood protection and safety strategies and also the negative influence of politics on flood protection policies. This perspective did not highlight the best way strategies that the federal government and related agencies can utilize to collaborate more effectively and develop frameworks that will handle such disasters adequately (Roberts, …show more content…
A centralized response framework has greater flexibility and also the capacity to mobilize mutual aid. If the federal government takes all responsibility and spearheads the coordination and rescue attempts, the Katrina disaster would also have easily been prevented (Roberts, 2013). However, a centralized response creates redundancy and complexity issues which federalism is commonly known for. Time is wasted especially due to these protocols which put people at risk in times of natural disasters. When the flow of communication and decision making is rapid, immediate action can be taken out without delays caused from finding out the severity of the problem. A federal agency such as The National Guard needs proper authorization, especially when dealing with tragedies and therefore, this may create slow response times due to such issues (Shane & Lipton, 2005). During Katrina, there was no control and command from FEMA in New Orleans. There was also no criticism of Tsunami victims that received large amounts of aid while no government organization was adequately able to help New Orleans during their time of need (Shane & Lipton,