The Effect of Threat Climates on Collaborations Among Local Governments: An Exploratory Approach with Perceptions of U.S. City Officials

Natural disasters such as floods, tornadoes, and earthquakes happen everywhere around the world, taking many human lives and destroying untold property. In addition to natural disasters, terrorism has been recognized as another potential disaster in the United States since September 11, 2001. Local government is a first responder in all emergency situations, yet its resources and capacities to deal with these situations are restricted. To effectively respond to dangerous circumstances, local governments need to collaborate by exchanging information and resources with such parties as other local governments, private and nonprofit organizations, nonprofit organizations, and other levels of government. The concepts of coordination and collaboration have been embedded in many national emergency policies for disaster relief and homeland security in the U.S. This exploratory research empirically examines how threat climates are associated with various types of local government collaboration: vertical, horizontal, and cross-sectoral. It has been found that public managers’ perception of threats has a positive effect on collaboration among local governments, but that collaborative strategies vary by government characteristics.