The government of Alaska (Iñupiaq: Alaskam Kavamanaa) in common with state and federal governments of the United States, has three branches of government: the executive, consisting of the Governor of Alaska and the state agencies; the state legislature consisting of two chambers, the House of Representatives and the Senate; and the judiciary consisting of the Supreme court and lower courts.
Alaska has 246 federally recognized tribal governments and one federal Indian (Native American) reservation.
Executive branch
The Governor of Alaska is the senior-most official of the Alaska executive branch. The main Alaska state agencies are the:
Department of Administration
Department of Commerce, Community and Economic Development
Department of Corrections
Department of Education and Early Development
Department of Environmental Conservation
Department of Fish and Game
Department of Health and Social Services
Department of Labor and Workforce Development
Department of Law
Department of Military and Veteran Affairs
Department of Natural Resources
Department of Public Safety
Department of Revenue
Department of Transportation and Public Facilities
Other agencies are the:
Alaska Division of Juvenile Justice
Alaska Permanent Fund
Alaska Volcano Observatory
Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission
Alaska State Pension Investment Board
The current Governor of Alaska is Mike Dunleavy (R) and the Lieutenant Governor of Alaska is Nancy Dahlstrom (R).
Legislature
Alaska has a Legislature. It is a bicameral institution, consisting of a lower chamber, the Alaska House of Representatives with 40 members, and an upper chamber, the Alaska Senate with 20 members. There are 40 House Districts (1-40) and 20 Senate Districts (A-T). The Alaska Legislature meets in the State Capitol building in Juneau.
Judiciary
The Alaska Court System is the unified, centrally administered, and totally state-funded judicial system. The Alaska District Court are the primary misdemeanor trial courts, the Alaska Superior Courts are the primary felony trial courts, and the Alaska Supreme Court and the Alaska Court of Appeals are the primary appellate courts. The Chief Justice of the Alaska Supreme Court is the administrative head of the Alaska Court System.
Local government
Alaska has two levels of local government, including boroughs (of which there are 19) and cities (currently 144). Boroughs in Alaska play a role very similar to Counties in 48 other states and Parishes in Louisiana. Owing to the state's low population density, most of the land is located in the Unorganized Borough which, as the name implies, has no intermediate borough government of its own, but is administered directly by the state government. Currently (2000 census) 57.71 percent of Alaska's land area has this status; however, its population comprises only 13.05 percent of the state's total. For statistical purposes the United States Census Bureau divides this territory into census areas .
Several population centers, including Anchorage and Juneau, have merged their city and borough governments because very few residents of these communities live outside the city but inside the borough. Other localities have both city governments and borough governments--borough governments provide services to less densely populated areas than city governments.