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We evaluate communication policies related to COVID-19 adopted by governors in the United States and explore how communication and policy directives are impacted by hyper-polarised situations, namely the presence of a divided government. This work sheds light on the challenges of crisis communication and executive leadership. Using a combination of robust regression and text and sentiment analyses, we compare the timing of and the language used by governors who imposed state-wide facemask mandates in 2020. We find that racially diverse states with Democratic governors acted more quickly than states with comparably older populations, had more people living in one household, and without health insurance. Further, we find that Democratic governors were slower to act when their decision could be checked by a Republican legislature highlighting the restrictive nature that executives face in crises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Party capability theory assumes that governments, due to their immense resources and status as repeat players, hold a great advantage over individuals and organizations pursuing litigation in courts. Less known is whether all levels of government enjoy this advantage, how they fare against one another and how an institutional arrangement such as federalism complicates such relationships. These questions are investigated using decisions made by the high courts of Australia, Canada, and the United States. The descriptive findings indicate that institutional arrangements, such as federalism, in some ways, confirm and in others confound traditional notions of which governments come out ahead, which yields important implications for party capability theory, specifically, and federalism, generally.

This article investigates the role race and class play in the economic recovery after Hurricane Katrina. Comparing the economic recovery of the cities of New Orleans and Gulfport, as well as making comparisons at the state level, reveals distinct differences in the economic recovery of these places. Utilizing a panel analysis, this article analyzes the effect Federal Emergency Management Agency dollars had on the recovery of jobs and housing post-Katrina. Results show that in the areas of job recovery, money played little role in economic recovery even while controlling for the effects of race and class. These results inform the debate over recovery in economically depressed places and show the importance of connecting emergency and disaster planning, particularly the recovery stage, to economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]