There are many quiet, noncontroversial, apolitical members of the clergy in Massachusetts–but the Rev. Eugene Rivers is not one of them. As one of the founders of Boston’s Ten Point […]
Dave Denison
Posted inUncategorized
Weird Science
Here is a case of journalistic fraud. Some may consider it a minor case. It involves highly questionable practices in the coverage of election-year politics, but it was hardly remarked […]
Posted inHistory
With historian Pauline Maier
With the publication of American Scripture: Making the Declaration of Independence last year, MIT professor Pauline Maier established herself not just as one of the nation’s leading scholars in the […]
Posted inUncategorized
Change and Continuity
As we were finishing work on this issue of CommonWealth, the governor’s race had gone into a post-primary, pre-election lull, national politics remained stuck on the Clinton-Lewinsky-Starr sex scandal, and […]
Posted inEducation
Building Schools in Lakeville
LAKEVILLE–Yard signs around town this spring carried a hopeful message: “Build a School. Build a Community.” Of course it’s never that easy–to build a school or a community. Even less […]
Posted inEducation
Building Schools in Hopkinton
HOPKINTON–In towns and suburbs across the state, hard-fought battles over building new schools have become as common as crabgrass. But few towns have witnessed a debate quite like the one […]
Posted inUncategorized
A Few Quibbles About Clean Elections
Of course it’s true that the system of getting elected to public office in this country, if you step back and think about it, is insane. For a candidate to […]
Posted inUncategorized
Water My Petunias
What is the point in having state legislators? What, if anything, do people expect from them? The author Alan Rosenthal tells of a Massachusetts state senator (unnamed!) who said he […]
Posted inUncategorized
Happy Days Are Here For Now
Earlier this year, I paid a visit to state Senator Richard Tisei in his wood-paneled office on the third floor of the State House. Tisei is one of the newer […]
Posted inUncategorized
The Man Who Knows Too Much
The Decline of Representative Democracy: Process, Participation, and Power in State Legislatures By Alan Rosenthal CQ Press, Washington, D.C., 1998, 369 pages. There can’t be more than a cloakroomful of […]
Posted inUncategorized
Derailed in Belchertown and Weston
BELCHERTOWN — It wasn’t hard to see that Bernie Kubiak was ready to take a vacation from local politics. He had yet to announce that he would not run for […]
Posted inUncategorized
John W Sears on the Grand Old Party
There is little about John W. Sears that suggests a thoroughly modern man. From the Gilbert & Sullivan references dropped into conversation, to the books aligned on the top of […]
Posted inUncategorized
Rainy Day Savings
When Acting Gov. Paul Cellucci sent his budget proposal to the Legislature earlier this year, it represented a politician’s picture of paradise. The economic boom has lifted state revenues to […]
Posted inUncategorized
Peace Corps Nexus
What do Bob Vila, Paul Theroux, and David Magnani have in common? No, they have not appeared together in “This Old House,” on the cover of The Mosquito Coast, or […]
Posted inUncategorized
The Business Climate
In the eyes of the political partisan, the world is made up of (1) the enemy, (2) crusaders against the enemy, and (3) compromisers, middle-of-the-roaders, and weak-kneed trimmers who defer […]
Posted inUncategorized
With Michael Porter Professor Scholar Consultant
Massachusetts is a place full of professors, but it’s hard to think of one who has had more influence on state government in recent years than Harvard Business School Professor […]
Posted inUncategorized
A Developers Nightmare
There are any number of nightmares that disturb the average developer’s sleep: an environmentalist with a lawsuit; an unscrupulous partner with connections to the Cayman Islands; a crash-course familiarity with […]
Posted inUncategorized
Regionalization
Every few years, debates about the need for regional government kick up in Massachusetts like a sudden gust of wind, and then quietly die down again. Boston saw a push […]
Posted inUncategorized
With Senate President Tom Birmingham
Thomas Birmingham, in the regal office of the Senate President, says he feels like the proverbial kid who shows up for dessert. He gets to enjoy the delicacies–in this case […]
Posted inUncategorized
A Professors Survey
NATICK – If you want information on town meetings in Massachusetts, the logical place to turn is the Massachusetts Moderators Association, the closest thing there is to an organization that […]
Posted inPolitics
Tom Finneran is in control
A GOOD POLITICIAN learns to make the most of what he has. One thing Thomas Finneran has is intensity in the eyes. His gaze can convey anger even when he […]
Posted inUncategorized
Fools on the Hill
“The natural tendency of representative government, as of modern civilisation, is towards collective mediocrity.” – John Stuart Mill, Considerations on Representative GovernmentOr, as a lawmaker down in Texas used to […]
Posted inUncategorized
New Ways in Weymouth
WEYMOUTH – It is the nature of government to respond to the crisis of the moment, and last fall the crisis on the minds of town officials had to do […]
Posted inUncategorized
Demise of the punch card
At least 30 towns in Massachusetts are making a decision similar to Weymouth’s on replacing their punch-card systems. Secretary of State William Galvin is urging towns to update their voting […]
