Semester
Summer
Date of Graduation
2009
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Type
PhD
College
Eberly College of Arts and Sciences
Department
Political Science
Committee Chair
Jeff Worsham
Abstract
Like other studies of agenda setting, this research builds on the work of Baumgartner and Jones (1993), King (1997), Worsham (1997) and Tzoumis (2001), and most recently, Wilkerson, Feeley, Schiereck, and Sue (1999). Specifically, the focus of this study is on disaster relief policy. Two basic objectives guide the study. The first is to examine the origins and evolution of disaster relief policy in order to understand its shifting image. The second is to understand how Congress governs the agenda of disaster relief policy in the post-war period.;The analysis in this dissertation is derived from data collected on disaster relief-related bills and hearings in Congress from 1947-2005. Through the utilization of both bill introductions and congressional hearings, general patterns of issue composition, committee competition and policy monopoly are examined.;This study demonstrates that although congressional committees often serve as the institutional anchor for subsystem arrangement and a policy monopoly, punctuating events can alter the policy equilibrium maintained by such an arrangement.
Recommended Citation
Foyou, Viviane E., "The politics of disaster relief policy (1947--2005)" (2009). Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports. 4464.
https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/etd/4464