Bureaucratizing The Good Samaritan: The Limitations Of Humanitarian Relief Operations - Softcover

Waters, Tony

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0813367905 ISBN 13: 9780813367903

Publisher: Perseus, 2001

Synopsis

Bureaucratizing the Good Samaritan is about the organization of refugee relief programs. It describes the practical, political, and moral assumptions of the ?international refugee relief regime.? Tony Waters emphasizes that the agencies delivering humanitarian relief are embedded in rationalized bureaucracies whose values are determined by their institutional frameworks. The demand for ?victims? is observed in the close relation between the interests of the popular press and the decisions made by bureaucracies.This presents a paradox in all humanitarian relief organizations, but perhaps no more so than in the Rwanda Relief Operations (1994-96) which ended in the largest mass forced repatriation since the end of World War II. This crisis is analyzed with an assumption that there is a basic contradiction between the demands of the bureaucratized organization and the need of relief agencies to generate the emotional publicity to sustain the interest of northern donors. The book concludes by noting that if refugee relief programs are to become more effective, the connection between the press's emotional demands for ?victims? and the bureaucratic organizations's decision processes need to be identified and reassessed.

About this title

Synopsis:

A study of the strengths and weaknesses of the system of emergency refugee relief programs, utilizing a case study approach which analyzes the ways in which large relief bureaucracies work - and do not work.. Bureaucratizing the Good Samaritan is about the organization of refugee relief programs. It describes the practical, political, and moral assumptions of the international refugee relief regime. Tony Waters emphasizes that the agencies delivering humanitarian relief are embedded in rationalized bureaucracies whose values are determined by their institutional frameworks. Using a comparative case study approach, the nature of international refugee relief is assessed in the context of how large bureaucracies work--and do not work. The book concludes by noting that if refugee relief programs are to become more effective, the connection between the presss emotional demands for victims and the bureaucratic organizationss decision processes need to be identified and reassessed. Bureaucratizing the Good Samaritan is about the organization of refugee relief programs. It describes the practical, political, and moral assumptions of the international refugee relief regime.

About the Author:

Tony Waters

About this edition

• Publisher: Perseus
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0813367905
• ISBN 13: 9780813367903
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 332