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Full-Text Articles in Political Science
Irish Identity Politics: The Reinvention Of Speaker John W. Mccormack Of Boston, Garrison Nelson
Irish Identity Politics: The Reinvention Of Speaker John W. Mccormack Of Boston, Garrison Nelson
New England Journal of Public Policy
From his election in 1940 as Majority Leader to his last day as Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives in 1971, John W. McCormack of Boston occupied the highest rungs of leadership in the Congress. Many biographies and autobiographies cover the lives and public careers of five Speakers, but not one has been devoted to McCormack — not because he was unimportant and irrelevant. He was a very private man who could rearrange the facts of his life to suit his political needs. The story had great resonance in Boston because its Irish gatekeepers — James Michael Curley, John …
Beyond The Party-Group Continuum: Massachusetts Interest Groups In The 1980s, John C. Berg
Beyond The Party-Group Continuum: Massachusetts Interest Groups In The 1980s, John C. Berg
New England Journal of Public Policy
Studies in the 1960s determined that Massachusetts had strong parties and weak interest groups. In the 1970s and 1980s, as the Republican Party shrank, party competition declined, conflict with the Democratic Party grew, and interest groups gained more importance — and probably will remain important despite the Republican gains of 1990. However, group conflict and citizen mobilization, including increased use of the initiative and referendum, create a situation of interest-centered conflict rather than interest-group dominance as traditionally conceived. This article, based on a 1987 survey of state legislators and legislative aides, plus a summary of recent Massachusetts political history, assesses …