"As primary vehicles for serving and protecting the interests of the people, state and local governments receive major attention in every state constitution. Each constitution spells out the basic structure of government and delineates authorities of the various branches and levels of government. The approach, however, varies from state to state. Some constitutions, particularly those of the past century, place emphasis on severely limiting and detailing grants of power. Quite often, weak government is assured through wide dispersal of authority and careful proscription of governmental powers. On the other hand, the newer trend in state constitutions has been toward return to the federal constitutional pattern and its more direct approach to structuring government and creating broad reservoirs of authority.

Alaska's constitution follows the approach of providing broad grants of power to each branch and level of government. In establishing the governmental structure, Alaska delegates did not feel that one branch of government should be more powerful than another. Rather, they largely predicated drawing of the constitution and its individual articles on making each branch-the legislature, executive, and judiciary-effective and strong in its own right. Similarly, they saw no dichotomy between a major state role in local government and the exercise of maximum self-government at the local level. Convention members acted on the premise that just as individual prerogatives should be enhanced to the utmost under the state, so government should function as effectively as possible. This philosophy is reflected in the constitutional provision for the structure of state and local government."

Victor Fischer

Convention Delegate

Alaska's Constitutional Convention, Victor Fischer, University of Alaska Press, 1975

Separation of powers is a doctrine of constitutional law - within both the Alaska and U.S. Constitutions - under which the three branches of government (executive, legislative, and judicial) are kept separate. The legislative branch makes the laws; the executive branch executes the laws and the judicial branch interprets the laws. The Alaska and U.S. constitutions establish a system of separation of powers and checks and balances that ensure no one branch has too much power.

"Of Time, Place and the Alaska Constitution" G. Alan Tarr

Learn more about the Alaska Constitution.