ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to sketch in the historical background necessary for a minimum, comprehension of the contemporary economic and political forces operating within the Massachusetts governmental structure. While the Irish immigration certainly produced the major shift in the composition of the population of Massachusetts, immigration from northern Europe and Canada continued high during the second half of the nineteenth century. Massachusetts Constitution established a frame of government providing for the familiar separation of powers between the legislative, judicial, and executive branches. The Department of Commerce was created by the General Court in 1953 to meet the threatened deterioration of economic morale in Massachusetts which accompanied the shift of some industries—largely textiles—to other states. The Republican party tends to collect money centrally and pass it down to the town committees for their use. The first American political party was the Federalist party.
