Hostname: page-component-6bf8c574d5-r4mrb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-03-11T05:08:55.384Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Disaster, Inc.: Privatization and Post-Katrina Rebuilding in New Orleans

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 August 2012

Kevin Fox Gotham
Kevin Fox Gotham
Affiliation:
School of Liberal Arts, Tulane University, New Orleans, [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper examines the problems and limitations of the privatization of federal and local disaster recovery policies and services following the Hurricane Katrina disaster. The paper discusses the significance of the Homeland Security Act of 2002 in accelerating efforts to devolve and privatize emergency management functions; the reorganization of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) as a service purchaser and arranger; and the efforts by the New Orleans city government to contract out disaster recovery activities to private firms. I situate and explain these three developments in the context of recent trends toward the neoliberalization of state activities, including the privatization and devolution of policy implementation to private firms and non-governmental organizations. On both the federal and local levels, inadequate contract oversight and lack of cost controls provided opportunities for private contractors to siphon public resources and exploit government agencies to further their profiteering interests and accumulation agendas. This article demonstrates how the privatization of emergency management services and policy constitutes a new regulatory project in which the state's role has shifted away from providing aid to disaster victims and toward the management and coordination of services delivered by private contractors.

Type
Research Article
Information
Perspectives on Politics , Volume 10 , Issue 3 , September 2012 , pp. 633 - 646
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Anrig, Greg. 2007. Conservatives Have No Clothes: Why Right-Wing Ideas Keep Failing. New York: John Wiley & Sons.Google Scholar
Antonio, Robert J. 2012. “After Neoliberalism: Whither Capitalism?” In Wiley Blackwell Companion to Sociology, ed. Ritzer, George. New York: Blackwell Publishing.Google Scholar
Birkland, Thomas, and Waterman, Sarah. 2006. “Is Federalism the Reason for Policy Failure in Hurricane Katrina?” Publius 38(4): 692–714.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brenner, Neil, and Theodore, Nik, eds. 2002. Spaces of Neoliberalism: Urban Restructuring in North America and Western Europe. New York: Blackwell Publishing.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burns, Peter, and Thomas, Matthew O.. 2008. “A New New Orleans? Understanding the Role of History and the State–Local Relationship in the Recovery Process.” Journal of Urban Affairs 30(3): 259–271.Google Scholar
Butler, Stuart. 1985. Privatizing Federal Spending. New York: Universe Books.Google Scholar
Calhoun, Craig. 2006. “The Privatization of Risk.” Public Culture 18(2): 257–63.Google Scholar
Chi, Keon S., and Jasper, Cindy. 1998. Private Practices: A Review of Privatization in State Government. Lexington, KY: The Council of State Governments.Google Scholar
City Council of New Orleans. 2010. “Mayor Landrieu Launches Economic Development Public-Private Partnership.” Press release (August 13). (http://www.nolacitycouncil.com/content/display.asp?id=54&nid=%7B092E37FC-F3A1-4D7D-B216-B9A92366E794%7D), accessed January 26, 2012.Google Scholar
City of New Orleans Office of Inspector General. 2010. Review of City of New Orleans Professional Services Contract with MWH Americas, Inc. for Infrastructure Project Management. OIG-I&E-09003(A) (April 21). New Orleans, LA: City of New Orleans.Google Scholar
Claiborne, William. 2001. “At FEMA, Allbaugh's New Order; Ex-Bush Campaign Head Brings Hands-On Managerial Style.” Washington Post (June 4): A17.Google Scholar
Cooper, C., and Block, Robert. 2006. Disaster: Hurricane Katrina and the Failure of Homeland Security. New York: Henry Holt and Company.Google Scholar
Crane, Edward H., and Boaz, David. 2005. Cato Handbook on Policy, 6th ed.Washington, DC: Cato Institute.Google Scholar
Crenson, Matthew A., and Ginsberg, Benjamin. 2002. Downsizing Democracy: How America Sidelined Its Citizens and Privatized Its Public. Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Daniels, Ronald J., Kettl, Donald F., and Kunreuther, Howard. 2005. On Risk and Disaster: Lessons from Hurricane Katrina. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
DeHoog, Ruth Hoogland. 1984. Contracting Out for Human Services: Economic, Political, and Organizational Perspectives. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.Google Scholar
Department of Homeland Security [DHS]. 2008. IA-TAC Report (August). Washington, DC: Department of Homeland Security.Google Scholar
Dickinson, Laura A. 2011. “Privatization and Accountability.” Annual Review of Law and Social Science 7: 101–20.Google Scholar
Dreier, Peter. 2006. “Katrina and Power in America.” Urban Affairs Review 41(4): 1–22.Google Scholar
Duménil, Gerard, and Lévy, Dominique. 2011. The Crisis of Neoliberalism. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Eggler, Bruce. 2010. “New Orleans City Budget Update Has Good News and Bad News.” New Orleans Times-Picayune (July 29): [B-01].Google Scholar
Elliston, Jon. 2004. “Disaster Waiting to Happen.” Independent Weekly, September 22, 2004 (http://www.indyweek.com/indyweek/a-disaster-waiting-to-happen/Conent?oid=1193151) accessed June 22, 2012.Google Scholar
Federal Emergency Management Agency [FEMA]. 2007. Public Assistance: Debris Management Guide. FEMA-325 (July). (http://www.fema.gov/government/grant/pa/demagde.shtm), accessed September 20, 2011.Google Scholar
Federal Emergency Management Agency [FEMA]. 2008. “Fact Sheet: Logistics Management Directorate.” Press release (April 28). (http://www.fema.gov/pdf/hazard/hurricane/2008/gustav/lmd_factsheet2008.pdf), accessed January 24, 2012.Google Scholar
Federal Emergency Management Agency [FEMA]. 2010a. “About FEMA Private Sector Division.” (http://www.fema.gov/privatesector/about.shtm), accessed April 16, 2010.Google Scholar
Federal Emergency Management Agency [FEMA]. 2010b. “Testimony of Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Joe M. Allbaugh, Before the Veterans Affairs, Housing and Urban Development and Independent Agencies Subcommittee of the Senate Appropriations Committee, May 15, 2001.” Transcript. RE: Current FEMA Instructions & Manuals Numerical Index. (http://www.fema.gov/about/director/allbaugh/testimony/051601.shtm), accessed January 20, 2012.Google Scholar
Feigenbaum, Harvey B., and Henig, Jeffrey. 1994. “The Political Underpinnings of Privatization: A Typology.” World Politics 46(2): 185–208.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goldsmith, Stephen, and Eggers, William. 2004. Governing by Network: The New Shape of Government. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press.Google Scholar
Gotham, Kevin Fox, and Greenberg, Miriam. 2008. “From 9/11 to 8/29: Post-Disaster Recovery and Rebuilding in New York and New Orleans.” Social Forces 87(2): 1037–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Government Accountability Office [GAO]. 1990. Navy Maintenance: Cost Growth and Schedule Overrun Problems Continue at the Shipyards. GAO/NSIAD-90-144. Washington, D.C.: Government Accountability Office.Google Scholar
Government Accountability Office [GAO]. 1996. Private and Public Prisons: Studies Comparing Operational Costs and/or Quality of Service. GAO/GGD-96-158. Washington, D.C.: Government Accountability Office.Google Scholar
Government Accountability Office [GAO]. 1997. Terms Related to Privatization Activities and Processes. GAO 97-121. Washington, D.C.: Government Accountability Office.Google Scholar
Government Accountability Office [GAO]. 1998. Privatization: Questions State and Local Decisionmakers Used When Considering Privatization Options. GAO/GGD-98-87. Washington, D.C.: Government Accountability Office.Google Scholar
Government Accountability Office [GAO]. 2007a. Budget Issues: FEMA Needs Adequate Data, Plans, and Systems to Effectively Manage Resources for Day-to-Day Operations. GAO-07-139 (January). Washington, D.C.: Government Accountability Office.Google Scholar
Government Accountability Office [GAO]. 2007b. Homeland Security: Observations on DHS and FEMA Efforts to Prepare for and Respond to Major and Catastrophic Disasters and Address Related Recommendations and Legislation. GAO-07-835T (May 15). Washington, D.C.: Government Accountability Office.Google Scholar
Government Accountability Office [GAO]. 2010. Defense Infrastructure: Army's Privatized Lodging Program Could Benefit from More Effective Planning (Report to Congressional Committees). GAO-10-771. Washington, D.C.: Government Accountability Office.Google Scholar
Hacker, Jacob. 2006. The Great Risk Shift. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Hackworth, Jason. 2007. The Neoliberal City: Governance, Ideology, and Development in American Urbanism. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Johnson, Cedric. 2011. The Neoliberal Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, Late Capitalism, and the Remaking of New Orleans. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Jurik, Nancy 2004. “Imagining Justice: Challenging the Privatization of Public Life.” Social Problems 51(1): 1–15.Google Scholar
Kettl, Donald F. 1988a. Government by Proxy: (Mis?)Managing Federal Programs. Washington, D.C.: Congressional Quarterly Press.Google Scholar
Kettl, Donald F. 1988b. “Performance and Accountability: The Challenge of Government by Proxy for Public Administration.” American Review of Public Administration 18(1): 9–28.Google Scholar
Kettl, Donald F. 1993. Sharing Power: Public Governance and Private Markets. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution.Google Scholar
Kettl, Donald F. 2000. “The Transformation of Governance: Globalization, Devolution, and the Role of Government.” Public Administration Review 60(6): 488–97.Google Scholar
Klein, Naomi. 2007. The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism. New York: Metropolitan Books/Henry Holt & Company.Google Scholar
Klinenberg, Eric, and Frank, Thomas. 2005. “Looting Homeland Security.” RollingStone.com (December 15). (http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/8952492/looting_homeland_security), accessed March 1, 2012.Google Scholar
Kosar, Kevin R. 2006. Privatization and the Federal Government: An Introduction. Congressional Research Service (CRS) Report for Congress. Order Code RL33777. (http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RL33777.pdf), accessed September 1, 2011.Google Scholar
Krupa, Michelle. 2010. “Landrieu Team Looks to Do More In-House; Outsourcing Swelled after Katrina.” The Times-Picayune (May 30), [B-01].Google Scholar
Mansfield, Becky. 2008. Privatization: Property and the Remaking of Nature-Society Relations. New York: John Wiley and Sons.Google Scholar
Marwell, Nicole. 2004. “Privatizing the Welfare State: Nonprofit Community-Based Organizations as Political Actors.” American Sociological Review 69(2): 265–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moore, Stephen, and Butler, Stuart M.. 1988. Privatization: A Strategy for Taming the Federal Budget. Washington, D.C.: Heritage Foundation.Google Scholar
Morris, John C. 2006. “Whither FEMA? Hurricane Katrina and FEMA's Response to the Gulf Coast.” Public Works Management and Policy 10(4): 284–294.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moss, Mitchell Moss, Schellhamer, Charles, and Berman, David A.. 2009. “The Stafford Act and Priorities for Reform.” Journal of Homeland Security and Emergency Management 6(1): 1–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Office of Management and Budget (OMB). 2004. The Budget of the United States Government, FY 2004. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) (http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BUDGET-2004-BUD/pdf/BUDGET-2004-BUD-15.pdf) accessed June 22, 2012.Google Scholar
Osborne, David, and Gaebler, Ted. 1993. Reinventing Government: How the Entrepreneurial Spirit Is Transforming the Public Sector. New York: Plume/Penguin Books.Google Scholar
Peck, Jamie, and Tickell, Adam. 2002. “Neoliberalizing Space.” In Spaces of Neoliberalism: Urban Restructuring in North America and Western Europe, eds. Brenner, Neil and Theodore, Nik. New York: Blackwell Publishing.Google Scholar
Perrow, Charles. 2005. “Using Organizations: The Case of FEMA.” Homeland Security Affairs 1(2): 1–29.Google Scholar
Perrow, Charles. 2006. “The Disaster After 9/11: The Department of Homeland Security and the Intelligence Reorganization.” Homeland Security Affairs 2(1): 1–32.Google Scholar
Phillips, Zack. 2007. “FEMA Looks to Private Sector for Disaster Provisions.” GovernmentExecutive.com (August 24). (http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=37855&dcn=e_gvet), accessed April 5, 2012.Google Scholar
Roland, Gerald, ed. 2008. Privatization: Successes and Failures. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Salamon, Lester M. 1995. Partners in Public Service: Government-Nonprofit Relations in the Modern Welfare State. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Savas, E.S. 1982. Privatizing the Public Sector: How to Shrink Government. Chatham, NJ: Chatham House Publishers.Google Scholar
Savas, E.S. 1987. Privatization: The Key to Better Government. Chatham, NJ: Chatham House Publishers.Google Scholar
Seidenstat, Paul, ed. 1999. Contracting out Government Services. Westport, CT: Praeger.Google Scholar
Smith, Steven Rathgeb, and Lipsky, Michael. 1993. Nonprofts for Hire: The Welfare State in the Age of Contracting. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Stehr, Steven D. 2006. “The Political Economy of Urban Disaster Assistance.” Urban Affairs Review 41(4): 492–500.Google Scholar
Tierney, Kathleen. 2007. “From the Margins to the Mainstream? Disaster Research at the Crossroads.” Annual Review of Sociology 33: 503–25.Google Scholar
US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Office of Inspector General. August 2008. Hurricane Katrina Temporary Housing Technical Assistance Contracts. OIG 88-08. Washington, DC: Department of Homeland Security (DHS).Google Scholar
US House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. 2007. FEMA's Toxic Trailers: Hearings before the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform [110th Congress]. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
US House of Representatives Select Bipartisan Committee to Investigate the Preparation for and Response to Hurricane Katrina. 2006. A Failure of Initiative (final report). H.R. Report 109-377. Washington, D.C.: US Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
US House of Representatives Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight. 2008. Toxic Trailers—Toxic Lethargy: How the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has Failed to Protect the Public Health (majority staff report). Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
US Senate Ad Hoc Subcommittee on Disaster Recovery. 2009. Far From Home: Deficiencies in Federal Disaster Housing Assistance After Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and Recommendations for Improvement (special report). Washington, D.C.: US Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
US Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. 2006a. Hurricane Katrina: A Nation Still Unprepared (special report). Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
US Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. 2006b. FEMA's Manufactured Housing Program: Haste Makes Waste: Hearings before the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, [109th Congress]. Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
Van Heerden, Ivor, and Bryan, Mike. 2006. The Storm: What Went Wrong and Why during Hurricane Katrina. New York: Viking.Google Scholar
Waugh, William L., ed. 2006. Shelter from the Storm: Repairing the National Emergency Management System after Hurricane Katrina. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 604(1).Google Scholar
Williams, Adley, and Company, LLP analysis of IA-TAC Task Order Summary December 2006, provided by FEMA. Department of Homeland Security, Office of Inspector General. August 2008. Hurricane Katrina Temporary Housing Technical Assistance Contracts. OIG 88-08, 2–3.Google Scholar
Winston, Pamela, Burwick, Andrew, McConnell, Sheena, and Roper, Richard, for Mathematica Policy Research, Inc. 2002. Privatization of Welfare Services: A Review of the Literature. Report submitted to US Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation. (http://aspe.hhs.gov/hsp/privatization02/index.htm), accessed January 20, 2012.Google Scholar