The Political Determinants of Disaster Communication Governance in Diverse Regimes: Comparative Evidence From Typhoon Response in the Philippines and Vietnam

ABSTRACT This article investigates political forces shaping what becomes visible during typhoon disasters across contrasting regime types. Countering dominant assumptions that equate democracy with effective crisis communication, the study develops a Hybrid Crisis Communication System model examining how political structures, patronage systems, propaganda machinery, and media control determine information flows when disasters strike. Drawing on 636 documents collected over nearly three decades and 28 in‐depth interviews with political leaders, disaster communication managers, journalists, and academicians in the field in the Philippines and Vietnam, the analysis demonstrates a troubling convergence: despite structural differences, both democratic and authoritarian governments sacrifice public safety for regime preservation. While the Philippines' decentralised system produces chaotic visibility marked by corruption and institutional fragmentation, Vietnam's centralisation enforces systematic information suppression through hierarchical control. Viewing (governmental) disaster communication as a public good, introducing “corrupting visibility” and “credibility collapse” as theoretical contributions, the research exposes how disaster communication transforms from a life‐saving public service into a political spectacle serving elite interests. By centreing Global South cases where political survival trumps technical rationality, this comparative study challenges Western epistemologies and reveals universal patterns of politically constructed disaster governance.