BOLD Changes Research Articles

Poland: Command Planning in Crisis

The wave of strikes that took place in Poland in 1980 started as a protest against increases in food prices without corresponding adjustments in wages. The real cause was, however, much deeper. It was an expression of nonconfidence in the party and government leaders and their policies, and a protest against the system of planning and management which had not been able to secure improvements in the standard of living. The strikes were a sign that the workers, and the entire population, realized that Gierek and his group had no program and were not prepared to take the necessary risks to introduce bold systemic changes. There was general recognition that the economic situation would not improve without strong pressure from below without creating an emer-

The Massachusetts Council of the Magistrates

M /ASSACHUSETTS has long been celebrated for having achieved, under Colony Charter, a practical independence of its home government for some sixty years. That Massachusetts introduced bold changes into its first constitution in defiance of provisions of Royal Charter of March 4, I628/29, is also very well known. But there are certain far-reaching constitutional changes, made by Colony of Massachusetts Bay on its own authority, which have not yet been remarked. I644, while government of Charles I was rendered helpless by civil war, Massachusetts took opportunity to re-arrange plan of its government, making conclusive some of these changes in its constitution. One of modifications which Colony established at that time was a Council of Magistrates, existence of which has been practically ignored by historians. Thus Osgood, whose history is nothing short of indispensable in a study of American colonial institutions, states that In Massachusetts, as in other corporate colonies, executive was lodged in governor and board of assistants. 1 But to speak of the executive power in early Massachusetts, is to see through