Governments and Crisis

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Governments and Crisis

Crises are one of the most destabilizing anyone can ever meet in the society. It usually frustrates the efforts that have been inputted for a very long time through its consequences that are usually negative. Governments meet different forms of crises that make them act in a certain way. It is based on this that this paper is going to discuss the ways through which governments handle a crisis (Meggan 9). Subsequently, the paper will investigate such measures by citing relevant examples by governments. A critical look at world War Z gives a clear indication on the perceived threat that crises can cause to the government and the scoeity. The concept will be used in this paper to make a comparison through the use of World War Z ideas.

The forms of crisis that engulf most government range from the financial crisis, insecurity, unrest within the country, natural calamities, labour strikes and civil wars. Many governments have come across financial crisis at one point, or another. Most governments usually respond to this crisis by developing monetary policies. Scholars and policymakers, however, have different views as to whether loosening or additional tightening policies, whether fiscal or monetary are most appropriate to improve the financial crises. As to monetary policy responses, economists agree that stiffening monetary policies are more realistic towards handling currency crisis (Meggan 27). That is because currency crisis is probable to originate from the unexpected withdrawal of direct or indirect foreign investment in the country, which explains the support of stiffening monetary policy. Any government that implements high interest rate plans or policies in such conditions will succeed in encouraging capital inflow and enclosing capital flight, in that way it will stabilize the exchange rate, as well as customer prices although at the cost of exports. On the other hand, currency crises in developing markets have frequently deteriorated into a systemic banking crisis, resulting in a phenomenon called twin crisis. For that reason, stiffening monetary policy can work alongside resolving the imminent crisis that can affect the banking sector in the country. In World War Z, the concept of financial crisis starts to be evident after that attack by the Zombis. In the movie there is budget restraints, governments are not likely to be able to look for expansionary economic policies.

For example, the government of Japan used appropriate fiscal policies was used to respond to the financial crises. That is because the crisis that was in the country was a case of sovereign debt, which required fiscal contraction that is usually accepted as the regular remedy, at least in part. Under a sovereign debt crisis, debtor states often suffer from monetary sanctions enforced by creditor nations. The sovereign debt itself also enforces an additional fiscal burden on borrower governments.

Another titillating example is the conflicting fiscal policy endorsed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for the period of the Asian monetary crisis that was between the year 1997 to 1998 and the global monetary crises of 2007to 2009. The International Monetary Fund endorsed that stiffening financial policy for those nations hit by crisis in Asian countries in 1997-98, but it did antagonistic expansionary economic policies to cope with the global financial crisis that recently happened in 2007-08. Without a doubt, under the present financial crises, most advanced economies like the United States of America have adopted expansionary fiscal and monetary policies, initiating financial stimulus packages of an incredible scale and dropping interest rates to offer additional liquidity in the markets. On the other hand, monetarists have for some time been apprehensive about the progressive effects of expansionary monetary policies as it might be the foundation for inflation, consequently countervailing the temporary improvement of the economy.

Disasters are the most significant crisis that governments have a hard time handling. There are two types of disasters, man-made and natural disasters. The man-made disasters include starting up a bush fire that might spread to a wider area or forest, which will result to destruction of forest cover, property and might lead to death of innocent citizens. A plane crash can also be a man-made disaster as it could be due to negligence that the plane crashes. The plane might crash on an area that is densely populated which can turn into a national disaster (Dhitinut et al 29). A disaster could also include heavy rains that lead to flooding. A region might be flooded to the extent that all the people living in that area are evacuated to a different place. Another example of a natural disaster is earthquakes, which the results can be very devastating to any government and country. The concept of disaster is the theme of World War Z; there are a lot of misfortunes that happen in the movie that portray the calamities that meet the people of New York.

In the world today such calamities are evident and in the United Kingdom (UK), there have been a lot of crises that have involved disasters, both natural and man-made, thereby forcing the government to come up with emergency management systems. Major operational changes, the historic path of both man-made and natural disasters, as well as the growing occurrence of hazards that are as a result of global climate change, validate the need for and significance of active emergency management system in the United Kingdom (Brooks, 13). The UK has handled various calamities through the use of the system. The UK government through the new intervention with emergency management centre has been providing efficacious, collaborative, timely provision of assistance in order to lessen the possible threat to human life and destruction of property by natural calamities and in turn create a safe environment for prospect generations. In most states with the UK, the central government and local government perform an important role by collaboration and a proven emergency management structure (Brooks, 21). Meanwhile, the system has been put in-place to work now and wait for future probability and the threat of natural disasters that are certain, the United Kingdom government is ready and equipped to face any distressing challenge.

The other crisis that has become common in the world today is the emerging daily protests that occur in different countries. That has been one of the crises that governments face in their daily activities. It has been stated in the media about a handful of governments that have met resistance from the public. In the movie the concept of protest is revealed when the people of New York are not happy about the invasion by Aliens. In our society this still happens. For example, the Bahraini situation in detail involved different parties that advocated for political reforms. In the beginning, the uprising was a collective effort by all the Muslims despite their religious preferences. The Sunni and the Shiite took part in the uprising (Lahlou 23). They appreciated the King’s efforts to establish democracy in the country. However, the problem arose with the Prime Minister, Sheikh Khalifa, who gave all public reports about the uprising. Later, the Prime Minister was accused of having caused the uprising because he made the Sunni and the Shia separate. As a result, the Sunni stopped taking part in the uprising. They pointed out that Bahrain and its allies in the Middle East had enough capacity to restore order in the country. It was different from other uprisings since the government had already deployed the right means to restore peace and order within the country. The government reacted to this crisis by, first, shutting down newspapers that were spreading propaganda in the country. Al-Wasat newspaper is one of the greatest papers that support human rights. The newspaper started reporting the violation of human rights immediately the protest broke out. It was later marred with many issues, and the government forced it to shut down. It was later reopened, but under the supervision of the state. Finally, the government made arrests of several people that were believed to be instigating the violence and inciting the masses to protest against the government. Presently, the crisis is cooling down but its effect was harsh on the government and the citizens of the country (Lahlou 28).

Insecurity and crime are becoming a common problem for most governments across the world. It is a crisis that is looming in most countries and different governments are dealing with it in unique ways. World War Z is an explicit example of insecurity because the world’s biggest city was invaded by aliens. According to the study findings of the research done by a private firm, there are variances in crime data between the three countries. The investigation revealed that there is the difference in the rate of certain crimes in the U.S, China and Russia. The high rate of crime that is rapidly affecting the society is a crisis that governments work hard to handle. The U.S has instigated laws that help in curbing crime and reducing the way it spreads across the cities in the country (Klenowski 12). Russia too is not in the dark; it has laws that do not all passion of illegal firearms and dealing in illegal drugs. China is considered to have the best policies in place against crime, and that is why it is trailing in crime levels. The three nations have different cultural practices that explain the difference in crime patterns, which can be traced from their history of drug lords and mafias who started such crimes. The governments also use crime data in managing the crime and insecurity crises, the purpose of crime data is to find out answers to the problem and to have lasting solutions. It identifies the areas with high crime rates and applying ways to decrease the crime (Klenowski 19). In administration, crime data is used to deploy a given number of police officers at the right place and time. However, the crime data does not include the reason such crimes happen, which could help in solving or ending crime.

In conclusion, crisis that most government witness in the process of administering its function hinder its effectiveness. For example, the policy restraints by the party-political institutions or circumstances are stronger for monetary policies matched to fiscal policies. Once the political or institutional circumstances are introduced, the stiffened effects of the economic crisis on fiscal policies vanish faster than those in budgetary policies. Disasters are other crises that most governments are forced to handle. These calamities are a big problem for governments as they affect a big part of the population and sometimes they can have economic effects on the country. In addition, there is insecurity and the ever rising political unrest across the world. These two also have great effect on the government. They have a negative effect on foreign investment to the country that has a direct outcome of the development and progress of the nation. It is always, therefore, the duty of the government to deal or handle such crisis as they emerge.

Works Cited

Lahlou, Alia. “Bahrain’s Arab Spring. Washington Report on Middle East Affairs,” Sep/Oct2011, Vol. 30, Issue 7. Retrieved from http://web.b.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?sid=daf33318-e24a-4cb7-8399-c719a4620a6e%40sessionmgr112&vid=2&hid=127&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=tth&AN=65169451

Klenowski, Paul. “Peacemaking criminology: etiology of crime or philosophy of life?” Contemporary Justice Review. Vol. 12, No. 2, June 2009, 207–222.

Dhitinut Ratnapradipa, Conder James, Ami Ruffing, and Victor White. “The 2011 Japanese Earthquake: An Overview of Environmental Health Impacts.” National Environmental Health Association. Volume 74 • Number 6

Meggan Taylor. “Pressing Issues: CSG Reports Offer Solutions for State Government.” November 2008. Retrieved from: http://web.b.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=fa005963-fe26-445e-bcbc-2b88b2f7d9ee%40sessionmgr198&vid=12&hid=127

Brooks, N. (2003, November). Vulnerability, risk and adaptation: A conceptual framework. Retrieved April 10, 2009, from Tyndal Centre for Climate Research: http://www.tyndall.ac.uk/publications/working_papers/wp38.pdf