Managing Social Crises through Public Policies: Mitigation and Reform

Abstract

 The recurring character of social crises puts a strong pressure for the development of strategies aiming to manage them. This paper argues that for managing crises both the operative dynamics and the consequences of crises on people have to be taken into consideration. The article identifies and reviews two strategies of crisis management through public policies: mitigation and reform. Both of them are analyzed regarding the dimensions they address, the time in which they are carried out, their aims, and the unforeseen consequences of the decision making process. The analysis suggests that strategies taking more time in activities of design and implementation show higher levels of reflexivity, which favors higher coherency in the restructuration phase postcrisis. Hence, the reform contributes to a more substantial overcoming of social crises, while mitigation entails higher risks of favoring the incubation of new crises.