Locke(d) Away or Free for All? Alaskan Homesteading, the Permanent Fund Dividend, and Shifting Property Models

Author: Daniel Greenspan

Field of Study: Business/Economics

Program Affiliation: Source Project Research Program

Faculty Mentors: Will Glovinsky

Easel: 14

Timeslot: Midday

Abstract: Accounts of U.S. property formation along the colonial frontier generally follow a Lockean model, in which occupation and improvement of land confer title. This project explores an underappreciated exception to this rule: the shift in Alaskan resource use models from the late 19th to the early 21st century. During this period, homesteading gave way to new resource-sharing models exemplified by the oil-revenue-sharing program known as the Permanent Fund Dividend (PFD). While the Homesteading Act adhered to John Locke’s labor theory of property, the PFD follows Thomas Spence’s wealth-sharing model as outlined in The Rights of Man (1775). Building on scholarship regarding Lockean property formation and evaluations of the PFD, this project consults legislation, legal documents, and government reports to examine how this transformation redefined Alaskan land ownership and shaped broader debates about resource allocation, economic policy, and Indigenous land claims.