Alaska Native Self-Government and Service Delivery: What Works?

Stephen Cornell and Joseph P. Kalt
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Stephen Cornell: Udall Center for Studies in Public Policy, U of Arizaona
Joseph P. Kalt: Harvard U and U of Arizona

Working Paper Series from Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government

Abstract: This study examines the determinants of the boundaries of efficient governance and social service delivery in Native Alaskan communities. These communities are commonly quite small and remote, and often have only modest administrative capacity. These factors suggest that economies of scale may operate and push the efficient location of governance and social service delivery toward regions and the State and away from the villages. Counteracting such tendencies, however, are principal-agent issues of accountability and "cultural match". Research in similar, American Indian settings outside of Alaska and examination of actual performance in a number of Alaskan cases indicate that local control substantially enhances accountability and improves the likelihood that decision makers operate with legitimacy and responsiveness to local conditions, norms, and values. At the same time, it is found that diseconomies of small scale are being overcome through innovative adaptations, such as provision of social services through multiple-village cooperation and governance by sub-regional village organizations.

Date: 2003-10
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ecl:harjfk:rwp03-042

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