From Flood Safety to Spatial Management: Expert-Policy Interactions in Dutch and US Flood Governance (Water Governance - Concepts, Methods, and Practice)

This book deals with the introduction of a new type of “spatial measures" in flood governance. In contrast to traditional “safety measures" that aim to provide protection against floods by building structural flood defenses such as levees and flood walls, the goal of spatial measures is to reduce the exposure to flood risks by changing the spatial layout of flood-prone areas. By limiting developments and flood-proofing buildings in areas at risk to flooding, investments in structural flood defenses can be circumvented and vulnerabilities reduce. World-wide, spatial measures are gaining attractiveness as a response strategy to increasing flood risks caused by climate change and urbanization. The introduction of spatial measures in flood governance involves more than the simple development of new policies and laws. Research has demonstrated that the implementation of spatial measures can have huge implications for how costs and responsibilities are divided between different levels of governance and between public and private actors, changing the whole organization behind flood governance. Both for the effectiveness and for the legitimacy of spatial flood governance strategies, it is important that these distributive implications are well understood. This book describes the introduction of spatial measures in the context of two very different delta countries: the Netherlands and the United States. In the United States, a spatial flood governance strategy was already developed in de mid-20th century whereas in the Netherlands, a safety paradigm institutionalized over the course of the 20th century and spatial measures have only recently been introduced. By analyzing the science-policy interactions underlying the implementation of spatial measures in both countries, this book shows how under the influence of different types of experts (engineers in the Netherlands and social geographers in the United States) different spatial flood management strategies emerged with different distributive implications, each with its own challenges for effectiveness and legitimacy. Acknowledgements 6 Contents 7 Abbreviations 10 1 A Framework for Analyzing Distributive Decision-Making in Flood Governance 11 1.1 Problem: Who Pays for Floods? 11 1.1.1 Distributive Choices in Environmental Governance 11 1.1.2 Distributive Choices in Flood Governance: The Shift to Spatial Measures 12 1.1.3 Two Extreme Cases: The Netherlands and the United States 14 1.1.4 Research Aim 15 1.2 Theoretical Framework 15 1.2.1 Different Research Perspectives on Flood Risk Distributions 16 1.2.2 The Expert-Democracy Tension in the Political Perspective 19 1.2.3 Expert-Democracy Tensions in Risk Governance 20 1.2.4 Research Question and Conceptual Clarifications 21 1.3 Conceptual and Analytical Framework 23 1.3.1 Institutional Change 23 1.3.2 The Policy Arrangements Framework 25 1.3.3 Framing Theory 27 1.3.4 Analytical Framework and Sub-questions 29 1.4 Data Collection and Methods 31 1.5 Structure of the Book 33 References 34 2 Establishing Safety Institutions in Dutch Flood Governance: A Political Genealogy of the Zuiderzee Works 41 2.1 Introduction 41 2.2 From Plan to Policy 42 2.2.1 The Rise of a Progressive-Liberal Elite 42 2.2.2 The Engagement of Progressive Elites in Zuiderzee Reclamations 44 2.2.3 The Zuiderzee Society and Its Achievements 45 2.3 The Political Efforts of the Zuiderzee Society 47 2.3.1 Dealing with Arguments of a Technical and Financial Nature 47 2.3.2 Resistance from the Zuiderzee Fisheries 54 2.4 The Implementation of the Zuiderzee Works 57 2.5 Conclusion 58 References 60 3 Engineering Space: Spatial Flood Risk Management in the Netherlands 63 3.1 Introduction 63 3.2 The Evolution of Dutch Flood Governance in the 20th Century 64 3.2.1 Standardization of the Safety Approach in the 1950s–1960s 65 3.2.2 The Incorporation of Ecological Expertise in the 1970s–1980s 67 3.3 The Implementation of Spatial Measures in the Netherlands 67 3.3.1 Room for the River 68 3.3.2 Flood Damage Compensation 70 3.3.3 The Second Delta Program 72 3.4 Conclusion 74 References 75 4 From Levees to Flood Insurance: The Spatial Turn in US Flood Governance 79 4.1 Introduction 79 4.2 The Engineers’ Era (1900–1920) 80 4.3 The Emergence of a Spatial Planning Approach 81 4.3.1 The Geographer’s Floodplain Management Approach (1930–1950) 81 4.3.2 Political Acceptance of Flood Insurance (1960–1970) 83 4.4 The Institutionalization of the US Spatial Approach to Floods 85 4.4.1 Growing Federal Involvement Under Environmentalism (1970–1980) 85 4.4.2 A Liberal Turn (1980–1990) 87 4.4.3 Operational Mode (1990–2005) 88 4.5 Expert-Influence in the US Turn to Spatial Measures 89 4.6 The Effects of Expert-Influence on Distributive Decision-Making 91 References 92 5 Policy Developments After Hurricane Katrina: A Case of Overcoming Uncertainty and Value Conflict 95 5.1 Introduction 95 5.2 A Recap: The National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) 96 5.3 A Reconstruction of the Policymaking Process on NFIP Reform After Hurricane Katrina 98 5.3.1 Different Value Orientations 98 5.3.2 Technical Explanations of the Problem 99 5.3.3 Interaction Between Political and Expert-Arguments: The Development of a Joint Policy Frame 101 5.3.4 Frame Evolution in the Context of Uncertainty 104 5.3.5 The 2012 Biggert-Waters Act and Its Implications 106 5.4 The Role and Effects of Experts in NFIP Reform 108 References 110 6 A Comparative Analysis of Expert-Influence in Dutch and US Flood Governance 113 6.1 Expert-Influence in Flood Governance: Blessing or Curse? 113 6.2 The Shift to Spatial Measures in Dutch and US Flood Governance 116 6.3 The Influence of Experts on the Shift to Spatial Measures 120 6.4 The Impacts on Distributive Decision-Making 121 6.5 Main Contributions and Limitations 124 References 126 Few political concepts are as emblematic of our era as democratic accountability. In a time of political and economic turmoil, in which global forces have destabilized conventional relations of political authority, democratic accountability has come to symbolize both what is absent and what is desired in our polity. Situated at the intersection of democratic theory and international studies, Accountability and Democracy provides an in-depth critical analysis of accountability. Through an engagement with several key democratic traditions, both ancient and modern, the book paints a rich picture of democratic accountability as a multi-dimensional concept harboring competing imperatives and diverse instantiations. Contrary to dominant views that emphasize discipline and control, Craig Borowiak offers an original and refreshing view of democratic accountability as a source of mutuality, participation, and political transformation. He both creatively engages conventional electoral models of accountability and moves beyond them by situating democratic accountability within more deliberative, participatory and agonistic contexts. Provocatively, the book also challenges deep-seated understandings of democratic accountability as an expression of popular sovereignty. Borowiak instead argues that accountable governance is incompatible with all claims to ultimate authority, regardless of whether they refer to the demos, the state, or cosmopolitan public law. Rather than conceiving of democratic accountability as a way to legitimize a secure and sovereign political order, the book contends that destabilization and democratic insurgence are indispensable and often neglected facets of democratic accountability practices. For contemporary scholars, practitioners and activists grappling with the challenge of building democratic legitimacy into world politics, the book urges greater reflexivity and nuance in how democratic accountability is evoked and implemented. It offers insights into the myriad ways democratic accountability has been thwarted in the past, while also cultivating a sense of expanded possibility for how it might be conceived for the present. -- Book cover Situated at the intersection of democratic theory and international studies, Accountability and Democracy provides an in-depth critical analysis of the concept “democratic accountability.” The book proceeds with separate chapters on accountability as found in the U.S. Ratification debates, agency theory, ancient Athenian democracy, theories of deliberative democracy, capitalist markets, and cosmopolitan democracy. Through an engagement with these different traditions and contexts, the book paints a picture of democratic accountability as a multidimensional concept harboring competing imperatives and diverse instantiations. It both engages conventional electoral models of accountability and moves beyond them by situating democratic accountability within more deliberative, participatory and agonistic contexts. Contrary to dominant views that emphasize discipline and control, the book describes democratic accountability as a source of mutuality, community, and political transformation. The book also challenges deep-seated understandings of democratic accountability as an expression of popular sovereignty. It instead argues that accountable governance is incompatible with all claims to ultimate authority, regardless of whether they refer to the demos, the state, or cosmopolitan public law. Rather than conceiving of democratic accountability as a way to legitimize a secure and sovereign political order, the book contends that destabilization and democratic insurgence are indispensable and often neglected facets of democratic accountability practices Front Matter ....Pages i-xi A Framework for Analyzing Distributive Decision-Making in Flood Governance (Emmy Bergsma)....Pages 1-30 Establishing Safety Institutions in Dutch Flood Governance: A Political Genealogy of the Zuiderzee Works (Emmy Bergsma)....Pages 31-52 Engineering Space: Spatial Flood Risk Management in the Netherlands (Emmy Bergsma)....Pages 53-68 From Levees to Flood Insurance: The Spatial Turn in US Flood Governance (Emmy Bergsma)....Pages 69-84 Policy Developments After Hurricane Katrina: A Case of Overcoming Uncertainty and Value Conflict (Emmy Bergsma)....Pages 85-102 A Comparative Analysis of Expert-Influence in Dutch and US Flood Governance (Emmy Bergsma)....Pages 103-118 Accountability and Democracy provides a critical study of the concept of "democratic accountability" as it figures in democratic theory and in debates over globalization.