Read all posts from ‘Disaster for democracy’

One week before the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires the state of Victoria cooked like never before.  On three consecutive days in late January the temperature exceeded 43 °C / 109 °F, scorching an already desiccated land and laying the foundations for the worst bushfires in Australian history.  On the fateful day […]

If pseudo democratic governments fail to manage outbreaks of epidemics, communities can come together to support people by tapping into their resources. Dengue fever has been a nightmare for the people of Pakistani in the last two years. In 2011, it reportedly infected more than 1400 people and killed 300. […]

In the turmoil that follows a natural disaster, extreme forms of governance can flourish. But, says Muhammad Farhan, effective democracy is the best route back to stability.

Does the occurrence of a natural disaster such as an earthquake, volcanic eruption, tsunami, flood, hurricane, epidemic, heat wave, and ⁄ or plague increase the risk of violent civil conflict in a society? This study uses available data for 187 political units for the period 1950–2000 to systematically explore this question […]

This paper conducts a first systematic investigation of the determinants and costs of terrorism attacks at the aggregate level. We use newly assembled datasets on terrorism attacks, natural disasters and  bank and currency crises to answer three questions: what are the determinants of terrorism incidence, is there an output cost […]