The Poetics of Modern Management

The Witch Doctors: Making Sense of the Management GurusBy John Micklethwait & Adrian WooldridgeTimes Books, New York, 1996, 369 pages. Dangerous Company: The Consulting Powerhouses and the Businesses They Save […]

A curious corollary to the anti-politics of the 1980s and 1990s — to the pervasive desire to throw the bums out — has been the wish to replace them with […]

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 […]

Massachusetts has become, in some ways, a more affordable place to do business, according to research by the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation. In 1993, when MTF released its first report on […]

Gina Gonzalez was struggling to raise two children on welfare, food stamps and a loan from her sister when the flier arrived at her Lowell apartment last summer. A new […]

Term limits are a solution that cannot work, to a problem we do not have. Enacted by the voters in 1994, under prodding from the anti-government crowd, the law has […]

Congressman Barney Frank is one of our most able and progressive legislators. I usually agree with him, but this time he has it wrong–a New Bedford casino will not bring […]

The case in favor of a gambling casino in New Bedford run by the Wampanoag Indians is straightforward. This is a proposal to let adults do what they wish to […]

Not long ago, getting a license plate for your car was a simple matter of standing in a long line at the Registry of Motor Vehicles, and then exchanging a […]

You can’t buy a lottery ticket in Leverett, a tiny town about 10 miles north of Amherst, but the people there still come up winners. Leverett’s town treasury took in […]

Changing times: Citizens for Limited Taxation, a group that has been a factor in Massachusetts politics since the 1970s, has expanded its mission. Executive Director Barbara Anderson has merged her […]

Designed especially for policy wonks, activists, and civic-minded cyberspace cruisers, the following is a special CommonWealth Guide to the World Wide Web. Not all information is created equal; herewith are […]

Dian Chaisson knows what it’s like to lose a job–several jobs, in fact. The Gardner native was laid off three times in two years: once from her secretarial job at […]

Life Support: Three Nurses on the Front LinesBy Suzanne GordonLittle, Brown and Company, Boston, 352 pages.It’s a tough time to be a nurse. My downstairs neighbor, a registered nurse, drags […]

No equivocation, then. “The land where the gold grasshopper swings above Faneuil Hall to the bidding of a damp east wind,” in other words Boston, has never been decanted more […]

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 […]

Rank State Total (in millions) Per Capita Rank Per Capita Year Round 1. New York $178.1 $9.80 5 Yes 2. California $176.2 $5.61 31 Yes 3. Pennsylvania $142.8 $11.85 4 […]

In the fourth-floor press room at the State House, there’s no more popular sport than flack-bashing. If reporters harbor a natural mistrust of politicians, it’s nothing compared to their contempt […]

About two years ago, David M. Kennedy, a researcher at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, had an idea about the youth violence that was plaguing Boston. He reasoned that the […]

“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 […]

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 […]

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 […]