ABSTRACT
This chapter sets the scene leading to the Beirut explosion, and reviews the literature on public administration, disaster response corruption, and the historical role of organizations in responding to disaster in Lebanon. In this regard, this chapter analyzes the effect of the state’s sociopolitical infrastructure on disaster management and mainly response by looking at (1) public administration and corruption, (2) disaster management policy in the state of Lebanon, and (3) the role of local and international nonprofit associations. It argues that the apocalyptic event highlighted the culture of negligence, corruption, and blame shift that characterizes the Lebanese bureaucracy, which also highly depends on volunteers and the nonprofit sector to fill the gap. It further argues that while many international initiatives were presented to help the government on the issue of transparency, management techniques, and focus on information technology in service delivery, most of these initiatives were constrained by the political system in the state (Bhuiyan et al 2020), in addition to the dysfunctional political system (Antoun, 2008; Salamey, 2014; Haase 2018), especially as it does not allow individual citizens to participate in the decision-making process and allows political parties to establish clientelist relationships that supersede people’s demands (Safa 2010; Haase 2018).
