Disaster Recovery Service Delivery: Toward a Theory of Simultaneous Government and Voluntary Sector Failures

• Date: 01 January 2019
• Published date: 01 January 2019
• Author: Kristin O’Donovan
• DOI: 10.1177/0095399715622231
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/0095399715622231

Administration & Society

2019, Vol. 51(1) 120 –139

© The Author(s) 2015

Article reuse guidelines:

sagepub.com/journals-permissions

DOI: 10.1177/0095399715622231

journals.sagepub.com/home/aas

Article

Disaster Recovery

Service Delivery: Toward

a Theory of Simultaneous

Government and

Voluntary Sector Failures

Kristin O’Donovan1

Abstract

This article introduces a theory of government and voluntary sector failure

in the context of disaster relief and recovery. It theorizes that government

and voluntary sectors will fail based on the amount of demand. This implies

that the supply of public services is fixed and demand for public services

varies to a greater degree than previously considered. This article argues

that government, formal nonprofit organizations, and informal voluntary

groups will simultaneously fail (or partially fail) to supply public services.

Furthermore, limited supply of services and varying levels of demand predict

failure to deliver relief and recovery services.

Keywords

voluntary failure, disasters, disaster recovery

The purpose of this article is to create a better understanding of how govern-

ment and nonprofit sectors coordinate activities and integrate resources to

address underserved populations after a disaster. The goal of this article is to

reconsider the theory of government and voluntary failure in a way that

focuses on failures at the margins of small and large events.

1Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, USA

Corresponding Author:

Kristin O’Donovan, Department of Political Science, Wayne State University, 2040 Faculty

Administration Building, 656 W. Kirby Street, Detroit, MI 48202, USA.

Email: Kristin.odonovan@wayne.edu

622231AASXXX10.1177/0095399715622231Administration & SocietyO’Donovan

research-article2015

O’Donovan 121

The central contention of this article is that theories of government and

voluntary sector failure accurately describe and model how recovery services

are provided in the majority disasters but fail to be sufficient at theorizing

about service delivery at the margins of small-scale and large-scale events.

By focusing on government and voluntary sector at the margins, it casts new

light on the demand for public services to marshal resources for public

service.

To that end, this article introduces the idea of government and nonprofit

sector failure as interrelated. Building upon classic notions of government

and nonprofit failure, this article presents a theory where both sectors can

partially fail to deliver public services. The implication is that a partial failure

theory allows for a collaborative theoretical relationship between the two

sectors that is closer to reality.

The remainder of this article is divided into four main sections. The

“Government and Voluntary Sectors in Disaster Recovery” section describes

the context of government and voluntary sectors in disaster recovery,

including the politics and policy that guide their activities and potential

constraints on the disaster recovery services. The “Government and

Voluntary Sector Failure” section outlines and critiques the theories of gov-

ernment and voluntary sector failures, with special attention to supply and

demand. The “Cases in Government and Voluntary Sector Failure: A

Rationale for Marginal Failure” section presents three recent cases as illus-

trative examples. The “Toward a Theory of Simultaneous Failure” section

discusses the cases in light of the theory and presents a set of theoretical

propositions for further development.

Government and Voluntary Sectors in Disaster

Recovery

Disaster preparedness is conceived of as a cycle of planning, organizing,

equipping, training, practice, and evaluation that is situated in a broader

framework known as the National Preparedness System (NPS). Within the

NPS there are five frameworks to guide disaster planning for prevention,

protection, mitigation, response, and recovery. The National Disaster

Recovery Framework (NDRF) provides policy guidance and planning for

disaster recovery. Under the initial version of the NDRF, the Federal

Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) required state and local govern-

ments to engage in disaster response and recovery planning with voluntary

organizations. Indeed, the revised NDRF adopts a “whole community”

approach including participatory planning from voluntary organizations,

with a wide range of missions and capacities.