Policy Diffusion in Indian Country

• In Event: Policy Diffusion in the United States

Abstract

This paper presents a theoretical model of policy diffusion specific to the experience of Native American tribal governments and inter-tribal organizations. It engages the general theoretical literature on policy diffusion and innovation, and argues that the traditional “internal determinants”, “national interaction”, “regional diffusion”, and “leader-laggard” models are insufficient for understanding the mechanisms through which tribal governments share information and develop similar policy-administrative practices. In doing so, the paper follows the general guidance of Berry and Berry’s “Unified Model of Government Innovation”, highlighting the motivational and material resources present amongst tribes, and then highlighting the unique and countervailing vertical (i.e. stemming from federal-tribal interactions) and horizontal (i.e. stemming from intertribal interactions) diffusion pressures faced by tribes. The model further deviates from Berry and Berry’s work to include variables such as relative cultural affinity between tribes, the specific governmental forms employed by tribes, the relative breadth of tribal direct service provision, and differing levels of federal-tribal and intertribal trust which reflect the specific histories of individual tribes vis-à-vis these other political entities. Specific examples of tribal policy diffusion which will be used to illustrate the theoretical model include the debate over whether or not to embrace self-governance authority and the development of inter-tribal functional authorities in specific policy areas (e.g. fisheries management, public health). Application of the model will also be used to develop a typology of tribal governments, contrasted in terms of their receptivity to adoption of new policy innovations and highlighting “isolationist”, “reluctant”, “under resourced”, and “active” categories. The paper will furthermore explain how the contextual factors identified above configure in such a way as to predict the degree to which tribal governments are open to external policy innovations.

Author

• Shane D. Day, Portland State University