State and Local Government Actions on Homeland Security: Explaining Variation in Preparedness Efforts.

Research on hazard management policy indicates there are meaningful disincentives for state and local governments to be proactive in terms of preparedness effort. We investigate local government preparedness activities on homeland security issues in order to ascertain whether homeland security issues are of a unique magnitude that surmount typical constraints and actually promote local effort. Specifically, we consider internal local government characteristics, potential threat vulnerability, and state administrative context in attempting to explain commitment to preparedness generally, and regional planning collaboration and response plan testing in particular. We find that internal characteristics such as administrative capacity are linked to local government effort, and to a lesser extent, perceived threat. Finally, the broader state administrative context does not have systematic effects on local government actions in the area of homeland security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]