Doctoral Dissertation Research in Political Science: The Interactions of Tribal Governments and Local Authorities: What are the Consequences of Federal Institutions

这个博士论文研究项目探讨了种族仇恨，经济差距和机构塑造美洲原住民部落政府和邻近地方政府之间的关系的方式。更广泛地说，这个项目谈到的方式，社会弱势塑造地方政府间的关系，以及如何制度安排可以随后改变这些关系。在部落与地方的关系中，历史环境产生了能够抵消社会劣势的制度。本项目评估部落政府通过这些机构获得的谈判资源。长期以来，政治学一直关注社会弱势如何转化为地方政府中的政治边缘化，通常，在地方政治中，强势的声音被放大，弱势的声音被削弱。学者们对机构和联邦干预如何构建地方政治同样感兴趣，并经常记录这些安排如何减轻一个地区的社会劣势。本研究通过研究机构和联邦干预措施在特殊情况下如何抵消地方政治中的社会劣势来解决这两个文献。虽然有很多东西可以从学术研究中学习，这些学术研究记录了那些拥有权力的人是如何变得更加强大的，但了解政治上弱势的群体如何组织和部署他们手头的资源也很重要。通过对六个部落政府及其邻近当局的深入研究，本项目确定了部落政府的不同情况如何导致部落-地方关系的变化。具体而言，本分析探讨如何在联邦干预，部落治理机构和部落资源的差异影响部落与地方的互动。这些发现阐明了部落活动家如何利用他们的制度环境，在当地政治中发出更强大的美洲原住民声音。

This doctoral dissertation research project examines the ways in which racial animosity, economic disparity, and institutions shape relations between Native American tribal governments and neighboring local governments. More broadly, this project speaks to the ways that social disadvantage shapes local intergovernmental relations, and how institutional arrangements can subsequently alter those relations. With tribal-local relations, historical circumstances have produced institutions that can offset social disadvantage. This project assesses the bargaining resources that tribal governments gain through those institutions. Political science has long been concerned with the ways that social disadvantage translates into political marginalization in local government-usually, strong voices are amplified, weak voices are diminished in local politics. Scholars have been equally interested in the ways that institutions and federal interventions structure local politics, and have often documented how these arrangements can attenuate social disadvantage in a region. This study addresses both literatures by examining how institutions and federal interventions, in special circumstances, can counteract social disadvantage in local politics. While there is much to be learned from the scholarship that has documented how those with power become even more powerful, it is also important to understand how politically weak groups marshal and deploy those resources that they have at hand. Through the intensive study of six tribal governments and their neighboring authorities, this project identifies how the differing circumstances of tribal governments cause tribal-local relations to vary. Specifically, this analysis examines how differences in federal interventions, tribal governing institutions, and tribal resources affect tribal-local interactions. These findings illuminate how tribal activists can parlay their institutional circumstances into a more powerful Native American voice in local politics.