'Being Master in One's Own House': Opinions and Experiences with the Finnmark Estate

In 2005, the state turned the ownership and administration of former crown land in Finnmark county (Norway) to a regional land tenure arrangement; The Finnmark Estate (FeFo), in response to land claims made by the Norwegian Samis. FeFo manages the land in the common best for the Finnmark inhabitants. Based on three surveys among Finnmark stakeholders, this paper explores the inhabitants' diffuse and specific support (Easton 1975) to FeFo. Support to an institution’s ideas, values and principles can be expressed through diffuse support, while specific support tells about inhabitants' experiences on institutions concrete management tasks. This concerns operationalizing FeFo's principles and goals, and initiating different management efforts. The paper shows that while FeFo as an institution has low diffuse support, the specific support to FeFo's management efforts is higher. What can explain the gap between diffuse and specific support as it apply to FeFo as a land tenure governance arrangement?