After Disaster

"Birkland has produced our first systematic study of the impact of focusing events on the public policy, and it is wonderful..... This book should be read by democratic theorists as well as public policy scholars" Bryan Jone, University of Washington

Disasters, like earthquakes are known as focusing events - sudden calamities that cause both citizens and policymakers to pay more attention to a public problem and often to press for solutions. This book, the first comprehensive analysis of these dramatic events, explains how and why some public disasters change public agendas and ultimately, public policies.

Thomas A. Birkland explores important successes and failures in the public policy process by analyzing the political outcomes of four types of events: earthquakes, hurricanes, oil spills and nuclear accidents. Using empirical data to go beyond an intuitive understanding of focusing events , he presents a theory of where wnd when these events will gain attention and how they trigger political reactions.