Is there coercion in local emergency management policy implementation?

Area of Science:

• Public Administration
• Emergency Management
• Homeland Security

Background:

• 21st-century American governance shows increased federal coercion and direction, impacting policy fields like emergency management.
• Post-9/11 era saw continued federal mandates requiring local compliance in emergency management, with grant funding at risk.
• Previous research indicated federal coercive threats lacked statistical significance in predicting local emergency management implementation behaviors during the George W. Bush administration.

Purpose of the Study:

• To determine if local emergency managers' attitudes shifted during the Obama administration regarding federal policy demands.
• To assess the predictive effect of potential coercion on local agencies' decisions to implement federal policy demands.
• To analyze compliance with the National Response Framework (NRF), National Incident Management System (NIMS), and Incident Command System (ICS).

Main Methods:

• Survey research examining attitudes and reported behaviors of local emergency management officials.
• Analysis of the impact of federal policy mandates and potential loss of grant funding on implementation decisions.
• Comparative analysis with previous findings from the George W. Bush administration.

Main Results:

• Coercive threats, specifically the potential loss of grant funding, demonstrated little to no predictive effect on local emergency management professionals' reported compliance.
• Attitudes and actions of local emergency managers were not significantly swayed by federal funding-related coercion during the Obama administration.
• Federal policy demands from NRF, NIMS, and ICS implementation were not primarily driven by coercive federal pressure.

Conclusions:

• Federal coercive policies, including grant funding risks, are ineffective in driving local emergency management compliance with federal mandates.
• Local emergency management professionals' decision-making is influenced by factors other than federal coercion.
• The study reinforces that federal threats to grant funding do not significantly alter local emergency management practices or attitudes towards federal policy.