The new political importance of the old hurricane risk: a contextual approach to understanding contemporary struggles with hurricane risk and insurance

Abstract

In the United States, policy-makers struggle to resolve conflict between public demands for affordable insurance costs covering hurricanes and market demands for risk-based insurance pricing. Given the socially constructed nature of risk, a risk-based pricing approach prioritizes insurer values and business practices over all societal value goals expressly limiting democratic inclusion in decision-making about risk. As a step towards the more democratically inclusive approach of risk governance, this article uses the state of Florida as a case study to provide a narrative of the social and political context for the evolution of the idea of U.S. hurricane risk. I argue that today’s hurricane risk is a product of long-standing shared efforts to build prosperity. However, it is no longer a simple risk for society to overcome on its way to economic well-being. Contemporary hurricane risk is systemic and serves as a nexus for political battles over American values.

Keywords:

• Context
• risk governance
• insurance
• hurricane
• risk perception
• climate change

Acknowledgments

The author thanks Lisa Dilling and Aaron King for their thoughtful comments and encouragement of this work.

Notes

1. Hurricane insurance is a misnomer. The hurricane peril is covered by windstorm insurance, which includes several wind related perils. However, the catastrophic loss potential of hurricanes make them a prime concern in windstorm coverage and the term ‘hurricane insurance’ is often used colloquially. Except where the more technically appropriate term windstorm insurance is significant, I use the term hurricane insurance to stay on point.

2. While this article was in preparation, Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, both major category storms, made landfall in the United States.