Knowledge of Cuna tradition is still an important determinant of status and is the basis on which village chiefs are elected by the adult men to lifetime terms. Chiefs have a number of assistants, the number varying with the needs of the village. The authority of the chief depends more on his ability to persuade than on his office. Decisions on communal activities are reached in meetings of all adult males. Chiefs also hold singing meetings in which they relate Cuna history and exhort villagers to behave properly.
Social control is largely on the informal level, and disputes are settled by the interested parties.
It is likely that in aboriginal times the village was the highest level of integration. In post-Columbian times, however, a process of consolidation of leadership eventually led to there being a single chief, elected from among the village chiefs, who mediated between the Cuna and outside governments. In the early 1900s, the death of one of these chiefs resulted in the formation of two political parties, which differed on the issues of the chief's successor, alliance with Panama versus Colombia, and the extent to which modernization should be encouraged. Although ideological differences are largely a thing of the past, most Cuna belong to one or the other party, and party politics are important in choosing chiefs and representatives. The Cuna religious system is intimately tied up with their medical system.