There are quite a number of similarities in as far as the response – at the federal, state, and government levels – to Hurricane Katrina and Coronavirus is concerned. To a large extent, the two videos come in handy in as far as the further promotion of ones understanding of federalism is concerned. Towards this end, it would be prudent to discuss various factors relating to not only the goals and challenges of federalism in the context of disasters and pandemics of this nature, but also the various benefits of individualized crisis responses. This text will also address the various principles as well as virtues of federalism that are of great relevance in as far as the proper functioning of the said system is concerned.
To begin with, it would be prudent to observe from the onset that one of the key goals of federalism that was apparent with respect to Hurricane Katrina was minimization of death and destruction. This is more so the case given that within days of the Hurricane, the federal and state governments did indeed release an aid package ($10.4 billion to be precise). However, one key challenge of federalism on this front was slow response and poorly coordinated efforts. When it comes to COVID-19 response, one goal of federalism was reigning in the spread of the virus. On the other hand, one key failure of federalism was failure to deploy the available resources quickly enough – with Juliette Kayyem (former assistant director – Department of Homeland Security) pointing out in the video on the Coronavirus Pandemic that that the federal government wasted valuable time procuring testing kits from Germany instead of deploying the WHO-shared kits.

From watching the two clips, there are quite a number of challenges of federalism that I did perceive. To begin with, when it comes to Hurricane Katrina, Richard Falkenrah (Federal Govt. Homeland Security Advisor at the time) points out there was a lot of confusion about who was really in charge of response efforts. Individualized crisis response would have indicated clear response structures. Further, a lot of valuable time was lost while waiting for substantive responses from the army, the National Guard,...…to reign in the spread. State and local governments could have deployed own test kits – on a need basis, and in collaboration with WHO. Individualized crisis response would also have eliminated opportunities for confusion and poor collaboration between the federal and state governments. It would also have played a more effective role in as far as the more effective deployment of resources is concerned. As it has been pointed out in the Coronavirus Pandemic clip, there has been constant feuding between governors and the federal government on matters revolving around resources.

In my opinion, there are certain virtues that would come in handy in attempts to further enhance the proper functioning of the federal government. The said virtues include, but they are not limited to; seamless planning and teamwork, better communication across various levels of government, and increased autonomy of state governments. In attempts to promote the country’s ideals on the representation and democratic fronts, the most appropriate federalism principle would be separation of powers – with state governments being granted broader powers in as far as crisis and disaster management is concerned.…