Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina has been the most devastating disaster faced by United States over the
years. It was very powerful and deadly event, which led to huge amount of damage and loss
of life. Moreover it was also one the most expensive and costliest hurricane ever faced by
United States. But Katrina never started as a deadly hurricane whereas it began as a Category
1 hurricane in Florida (according to Saffir Simpson Hurricane Scale), which rose to Category
5 in Mexico but again weakened to 3 gradually, whereas after it hit New Orleans it became as
the world’s sixth strongest hurricane. New Orleans had always been in the Storm Surge Zone
and is situated up to six feet below the sea level {Brown, 2005}
It is situated on the banks of River Mississippi and its northern border is surrounded by Lake
Pontchartrain. It can be pictured as a bowl surrounded with water but still the levees on its
banks are only built to control Category 3 hurricane. Katrina was a category 3 hurricane
when it hit New Orleans but the wind and rain soon made it worse, as a result almost 80% of
the New Orleans was drowned under water and people were stuck where they were. New
Orleans was a centre of employment for most of the places around and thousands of residents
were left unemployed. But generosity was shown by all countries across the world with
Kuwait pledging the largest aid {Hoffman, 2007}
We will be discussing Pluralism and Elitism as competing theories with respect to policies
and issues to manage and overcome the problems of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. The
interest groups help in identifying problems, setting agendas, and formulating policies. There
has always been some tussle between the pluralist and elitist conceptions which we will be
identifying further. Both of these political theories don’t succeed in providing a holistic view
of the political processes as these group theories fail to provide the evidence that interest
groups are effectively participating in the policy process. The foundation of these groups was
labour movement in the 19th century leading to the rise of ‘pressure politics’ for safeguarding
the interest of corporate and working class by exerting pressure on the policy makers.
Elitism
According to the ‘Elitism’ Theory of politics, a small minority comprising of socio-economic
elite withhold the power and influence of policy making in politics. This theory argues that a
group will require large amount of resources and high level of patron support for contending
influence, which if divided amongst the group, will create unequal access of power and class.
Whereas elitist groups will always preserve their interest and there will be no unequal
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Hurricane Katrina
distribution of resources. Moreover according to the supporters of this theory, the group
theories have not yet been able to explain the unequal distribution of social outcomes which
might become a hindrance to the elected group, as there might be occasions when no group
will speak for all interests, in such circumstances an elite ruling class might be able to
suppress them easily.
Pluralism
Pluralism undertakes to transform the state. According to the pluralist a state ‘Monistic’ as
they state possesses a single source of authority which has unlimited power. Modern
pluralism argued that ‘Intermediate Institutions’ like universities, churches, and professional
organizations must not be dependent on the sovereign authorities and must have a degree of
autonomy by distributing powers of the government . Compromises on the political grounds
will be promoted and if an individual is not satisfied from the governing body he can turn
towards the other.
From a pluralistic perspective, political parties must aggregate group interests and integrate
group demands into programmes which are manageable, therefore a pluralistic party will be
highly competitive, but at the same time it must balanced and equitable. Pluralism rules on
the principle of decentralizing power to all branches and levels of government and it suggests
that internal group conflicts and dialogue will lead to something which is best for the society.
No individual group here can claim the general will and the inequalities amongst group
interests are resolved {Self, 2009 }.
Problems arising due to Hurricane Katrina
Agricultural production and energy supply
US grain marketing infrastructure is based in the region of New Orleans like port facilities,
river traffic infrastructure, ships etc , this was severely damaged by the hurricane Katrina and
thereby hampered the agricultural traffic on Mississippi river. New Orleans has been the
gateway for oil imports and agricultural export in US and after the hurricane destruction the
agricultural trade stopped and as a result the exports to international markets was affected and
the existing commodity prices and farm income in the interiors of states also had a steep fall.
The hurricane also had severe effects on the energy prices as the disaster had led to closing
down of major petroleum, natural gas and refining facilities. Moreover as barge
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Hurricane Katrina
transportation is considered to be the cheapest form of moving bulk commodities long
distance, Mississippi river navigation system provided considerable savings to the regional
and national economy and also helped the country to compete in the international market. All
these advantages came to a standstill after the disaster and the national economy suffered
high financial and reputation losses nationally and internationally {Chite, 2005}
Employment
New Orleans and its suburbs were evacuated at the time of the hurricane so it took a
considerable time before all basic amenities in the region were restored and the people
returned to their houses. So especially those people whose jobs involved restoration and
essential services were immediately employed whereas federal government and state
employees of MNC’s had to remain unemployed or had to work in alternate locations until
the restoration work was complete and many were off their payrolls for more than a month
waiting for gradual rebound {Douglas Holtz-Eakin, 2005}.
Poverty and Inequality
After the hurricane stuck New Orleans the inequality of wealth and income grew and both
media and government diverted their attention to increasing poverty in U.S. People were
desperate and begging for help. Poor people had never been on the US national agenda, as
people who were famous and doing well had no time to look down. Hurricane Katrina
opened the drapes from the continuous racial divisions in the society, which had never been
attended to. Millions were generated and collected to support the victims of the disaster but it
was too late, as the government and nation as a whole was totally indifferent from the
towards preventing the disaster in future and fighting poverty arising as a result of it. The
hurricane destroyed rich as well as poor and all need government support and services, but
the bureaucratic processes and systems made it difficult for the help to reach on time and
increased hunger and poverty throughout New Orleans {Singer, 2006}.
Immediate Action
Before the landfall of Katrina, Northern Command of defence had started rescue operations
but still aid couldn’t reach areas on time and it further took days for the people to receive
what they should have got days before. Many administrative failures and procedural
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Hurricane Katrina
obstacles were the reasons for this delay. Moreover this was considered to be the only option
by the government officials for disaster response. As a result as directed by the President
military was summoned to handle the situation. This is because all other civil agencies
needed the approval of Secretary of Defence for providing any assistance (Federation of
American Scietists, 2005)
Volunteer Services
Uncoordinated and uncontrolled volunteers can lead to another big disaster after what had
already occurred and this spontaneous relief hinders the ongoing relief operations. And this
problem was faced even after Katrina had hit New Orleans, as there was no management of
handling or managing volunteers by the officials and no disaster management process
included a solution, plan or process to handle such diversions and loss of resources and only
a recommendation was given by the authorities to let only state officials handle the disaster
management operations {Stone, 2005}.
Lack of Contingency Planning and funding
It circulated amongst media for months that solid warning of the hurricane had been ignored over the
years and authorities didn’t pay any heed to them. This led to only preparation for a category 3
hurricane instead of 4 or 5 and all the funding being redirect to other things. Moreover even after the
Hurricane had struck and many countries offered to help, a generous offer more than 100 rescue aids,
mobile hospital units, 20 tonnes of bottled water and 18 power generation plants, by a source, was
rejected because the U.S leadership seemed to dislike it {Shah, 2005}.
We will now understand how a specific policy approach i.e. either ‘Pluralist’ or ‘Elitist’ would be
helpful in providing solution to the issues and problems which were faced after the disaster of
Hurricane Katrina. Both the viewpoints will be explained according to varied problems.
Issues Pluralism Elitism
Agricultural Production Due to these issues the country’s This issue could have been better
and Energy Supply economy suffered losses to a great resorted in case of an elitist
extent and in this case a pluralist economy as, it doesn’t include
economy would have led to price sustaining varied groups and no
inflations and high financial and power or resources are distributed.
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Hurricane Katrina
reputation losses as a pluralist This scenario would have helped the
economy demands catering to varied political policy makers to focus on
groups and distributing and funds the people who are actually in need
amongst all the interest groups and thereby transfer all the funds
and resources towards the needy
without worrying about different
interest groups
Unemployment This problem could be handled more As discussed earlier mostly the
effectively in a pluralistic economy, federal government employees had
as different interest group give rise to to suffer the most after the disaster
more jobs and employment struck and as we are aware an elitist
opportunities moreover all groups are economy contains a group of
surviving on their personal funds and minority running the policies and
resources allotted equally, so they operations, which will be focussing
would be more keen to get back to on getting people back to their feet
work and employ people to get things and providing tem basic amenities
back to normal. rather than creating jobs.
Poverty and Inequality Pluralism believes in equal Unlike pluralism, elitism divided
distribution of resources amongst all the economy in the very beginning
interest groups. So this situation could of its existence by handing over the
be handled well in case of a pluralist decision making powers to a group
economy, as the divide of rich and of ‘Elites’ in the society and in an
poor would have been much narrower elitist economy this divide might
due to the existence of interest groups have been much more as, a single
for all strata of the society. Moreover centralised source of power would
all the agendas would be given equal have been indifferent to issues like
importance with a negligible equality. Although poverty could be
bureaucratic ladder to climb. reduces by deploying the elite funds
and deposits, which may or may not
happen and will be on the sole
discretion of the group of
individuals amongst which the
power is withheld.
Immediate Action Many administrative failures and long Even in the case of an elitist
bureaucratic levels led to a detailed economy the reaction to the disaster
action on reacting to the disaster would have been prompt, as only
management operations. In a decision of a group of individuals
pluralistic economy this could have would be required, although this
done much quicker as a specific might be one agenda in front of
interest group would be dedicated to them amongst many, so might be
the task and no further sanctions or delayed when compared to
approvals would have been required. pluralism.
Volunteer Services Managing Volunteers and making Similar to a federal economy. Elitist
them an asset rather than a liability is also never can help and manage
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Hurricane Katrina
a best thing to do in situations like people suffering on the situation and
these. A group working on the ground can only pass guidelines which may
with volunteers and managing is far or may not be followed by volunteer
better option than controlling from organizations at the places where
sitting far away. Moreover disaster required.
management should be done at the
grass root level which officials sitting
in the state or centre offices might
never be able to handle.
Lack of Contingency Federal governments also have a Similar to the federal governments
dedicated authority for predicting the it majorly depends on the kind of
Planning and funding
disasters but sanctioning any action is elites heading the group, and there
still up to the top level but in case of a personal perceptions and desires
pluralist economy, if the interest might hinder their decision for
groups are dedicated to their tasks, nations security and relief
they don’t have to wait for any
approvals and they can start rescue
operations as soon as they detect a
threat. However the personal
grievances might be more in this case,
which might not be even noticed as no
one else except the group will be
accountable.
Conclusion
Group theories like Pluralism and Elitism can be useful for analyzing and providing
frameworks but they might not work as a predictive theory which will involve making
policies.
As discussed above a society which is purely elitist or Pluralist might not be a solution to
all the problems but a blend of both will certainly help in overcoming any problems
arising due to disasters or any other social injustice.
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Hurricane Katrina
References
Brown, D. M. (2005). Hurricane Katrina: the first seven days of America's worst natural
disaster. U.S., Lulu.com.
Chite, R. S. a. R. M. (2005). "U.S. Agriculture After Hurricane Katrina:
Status and Issues." CRS Report for Congress(Order Code RL33075).
Douglas Holtz-Eakin (2005). Macroeconomic and Budgetary Effects of Hurricane Katrina.
Washington DC, CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET OFFICE
Hoffman, M. A. (2007). Hurricane Katrina. USA, The Rosen Publishing Group.
Self, P. (2009). Political Theories of Modern Government: Its Role and Reform. New York,
USA, Taylor & Francis.
Shah, A. (2005). "Hurricane Katrina." Global Issues Retrieved 13 Nov. 2005. Web. 22 Apr.
2011. , from <http://www.globalissues.org/article/564/hurricane-katrina>.
Singer, J. W. (2006). "AFTER THE FLOOD:EQUALITY & HUMANITY IN PROPERTY
REGIMES ".
Steve Bowman, L. K., Amy Belasco (2005). Hurricane Katrina: DOD Disaster Response,
CRS Report for Congress.
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Hurricane Katrina
Stone, F. (2005). "MANAGING SPONTANEOUS
DISASTER VOLUNTEERS."
NC Commission on Volunteerism and Community Service.
