The Role Of Government In The Post-earthquake Reconstruction

Earthquake is a natural disaster, known for its wide range of influence, great destruction, heavy secondary disasters, and difficulty in prediction. When an earthquake takes place, it is of great difficulty for government alone to establish an efficient, concerted emergency system. Therefore, the participation of government at all levels, private enterprises, social organizations and individuals constitute the crucial factors that affect the efficiency of rescue work. Emergency relief in disaster represents the executive power of a country. There for it is of great political and social significance to establish a healthy and developed system of emergency relief in disaster. With the transformation of the society and government roles and with the gradual establishment and perfection of economic system, government is adapting itself in responding to natural disaster. From the role of all by the government in Tangshan earthquake to Wenchuan earthquake, in which both the social resources and powers were mobilized to respond to the emergency, making government to shift form a sole role as a do-it-all-by-itself to multi roles as a leader, instructor and supervisor. Reconstruction after earthquake is an enormous, systematic and long-term work. While stressing the leading role of government, we must also actively guide enterprises and other non-government organizations to join the reconstruction work and mobilize the people in the earthquake-stricken area to actively take part in rebuilding their homes, thus a government-led, departments-responsible structure supported by people from all walks of life will be formed.This thesis is with dialectical and historical materialism as a basic guide, under the direction of scientific outlook on development, comprehensive political science, sociology, management, economics and other relevant theory. It takes comparative way, case means, empirical method and other research methods, with reasonable reference to the existing theories, fully exploring the historical archives of information on the regional microcosmic research of the the reconstruction of Beichuan after the Wenchuan earthquake.This thesis, based on the experience of some foreign countries in doing similar job, centering on the role that the government played, analyzes the status quo, the problems and the according causes of the reconstruction after earthquake takes place, and summarizes the experience in the previous reconstruction. It also offers some proper suggestions that the government and social forces take part in the reconstruction after the disaster, which is in the expectation of improving both the efficiency and effectiveness of government in rescue work in response to natural disaster.