Word: formful
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...would deny that Cambridge politics are unusual, and it is one of its oddest phenomena that the local form of government apparently discourages the entrance of issues in a rountine campaign. If there is a scandal, as at the 1957 elections, that can become an important issue; but in a quiet year, few candidates are heard debating each other on the relative merits of their positions...
...likely to find few in the Council who will stand with him to push it through. For a well-oiled political machine must have followers as well as leaders, and nine politicians each leading in his own direction seems at best an inefficient operation. Plan E, the Cambridge form of government, has faced opposition of professional politicians from its very inception in 1945; and while many ascribe this opposition to the difficulty Plan E presents for potential grafters, there seems to be an honest objection that without leadership--or "party responsibility"--the Council has trouble arriving at a clear definition...
...meet the practical difficulties raised by governmental reform, Plan E supporters in Cambridge banded together to form the Cambridge Civic Association. Functioning not only as an election-time support to good-government candidates but as a fulltime watchdog and policy development group, it assumed and has maintained a strong position as perhaps the principal source of progressive ideas in the city...
...receiving CCA endorsement, these Councillors, regardless of their backgrounds and manner of their campaigns, have accepted, in general form, the goals of the Association's platform. They are not, of course, obligated to vote with the CCA on any issure at all, though they could lose endorsement or overzealous independence. And they have the further responsibility of initiating as well as supporting progressive legislation...
This uniform commitment to progress makes things difficult for the independent Councillors. They are not devoid of ideas or desirable civic improvements, particularly items of largely neighborhood importance which the CCA could overlook. But if CCA Councillors do not offer their support, the independents must form temporary alliances, often by trading votes with their fellows. There are always more or less permanent alliances within this group, but these are sometimes unreliable. Not infrequently the independent Councillor must choose between the CCA's plan for progress, or no plan...