Dance Festivals Gone Awry: Accountability Processes Following the Hoek Van Holland Riot and the Love Parade in Duisberg

Crisis management does not stop when an operational crisis has been dealt with. On the contrary, once the operational crisis is over there is the threat of another crisis – a political one this time – if the accountability process is handled inadequately (Boin, McConnell, ’t Hart, 2008). This stage of crisis management is rife with dangers as actors seek to defend their actions while deflecting or shifting blame to others. If actors fail to properly handle this blame game, they can lose their job.

In this paper, we investigate the accountability processes following two dance festivals that went awfully wrong. A beach festival at Hoek van Holland (The Netherlands) turned into a riot. In response, the police took unprecedented action by firing with live ammunition at the rioters resulting in the death of one man. In Duisberg (Germany), a narrow access road to the Love parade resulted in the death of 21 people.

Both crises were followed by fierce accountability processes which ultimately led to the resignation of the police chief (Netherlands) and mayor (Germany). Using Hood et al.’s theory on blame games (2009), the accountability processes as described in various newspapers were coded. Combining quantitative and qualitative analysis, we explain the outcomes of both blame games in this paper.

References

Boin, A., McConnell, A. and ’t Hart, P. (2008), 'Governing after Crisis', in Boin, A., McConnell, A. and ’t Hart, P. (Eds), Governing after Crisis. The Politics of Investigation, Accountability, and Learning, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 3-30.
Hood, C., Jennings, W., Dixon, R., Hogwood, B. and Beeston, C. (2009), 'Testing Times: Exploring Staged Responses And The Impact of Blame Management Strategies in Two Examination Fiasco Cases', European Journal of Political Research, Volume 48, Number 6, pp. 695-722.