Disaster Beliefs and Ideological Orientation

Disaster researchers contrast ‘social control’ and ‘social mobilization’ models of disaster response. Their perspectives suggest that the social mobilization model yields more rational resource allocation implications than the former model. Nevertheless, scholars and professionals have experienced only partial success worldwide in changing actual emergency management organizational approaches. An explanation may reside in the similarity of these models with a pair of deeply seated ideological viewpoints. ‘Left’ and ‘right’ belief systems are elaborated here, compared with the two disaster response models, and found to be consonant with those models in the direction expected.