Government of Massachusetts
Great Seal of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts
Polity type	Presidential republic Federated state
Constitution	Constitution of Massachusetts
Legislative branch
Name	General Court
Type	Bicameral
Meeting place	Massachusetts State House
Upper house
Name	Senate
Presiding officer	Karen Spilka,President
Lower house
Name	House of Representatives
Presiding officer	Ronald Mariano,Speaker
Executive branch
Head of state andgovernment
Title	Governor
Currently	Maura Healey
Appointer	Election
Cabinet
Name	9 Executive Agencies
Leader	Governor
Deputy leader	Lieutenant Governor
Headquarters	State House
Judicial branch
Name	Judiciary of Massachusetts
Courts	Courts of Massachusetts
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Chief judge	Kimberly S. Budd
Seat	Suffolk County Courthouse,Boston

The Commonwealth ofMassachusetts is governed by a set of political tenets laid down in itsstate constitution.Legislative power is held by thebicameralGeneral Court, which is composed of theSenate andHouse of Representatives. Thegovernor exercises executive power with other independently elected officers: theAttorney General,Secretary of the Commonwealth, andAuditor. The state's judicial power rests in theSupreme Judicial Court, which manages its court system. Cities andtowns act through local governmental bodies to the extent that they are authorizedby the Commonwealth on local issues, including limitedhome-rule authority. Although mostcounty governments were abolished during the 1990s and 2000s, a handful remain.

Massachusetts'capital city isBoston. The seat of power is inBeacon Hill, home of the legislative and executive branches. The Supreme Judicial Court is in nearby Pemberton Hill.

ForCongressional representation outlined in theUnited States Constitution, Massachusetts elects two senators to theSenate, as well as a number of Representatives to theHouse of Representatives proportional to the state's population in theUS Census. From the2010 Census, Massachusetts has nine representatives. As of the2020 election, all these officials have been from theDemocratic Party. This makes the Massachusetts federal delegation the largest single-party federal delegation in the United States.

Congressional delegation of Massachusetts
Chamber	District	Official	Party		Term began	Term expires
Senate	At-Large	Elizabeth Warren		Democratic	2019	2025
		Ed Markey		Democratic	2021	2027
House of Representatives	1st	Richard Neal		Democratic	2023	2025
	2nd	Jim McGovern		Democratic
	3rd	Lori Trahan		Democratic
	4th	Jake Auchincloss		Democratic
	5th	Katherine Clark		Democratic
	6th	Seth Moulton		Democratic
	7th	Ayanna Pressley		Democratic
	8th	Stephen Lynch		Democratic
	9th	Bill Keating		Democratic

For federal court cases the State falls within theUnited States District Court for the District of Massachusetts and appeals to theUnited States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.

Massachusetts has 11 votes in theelectoral college for election of thePresident, which are given on a winner-take-all basis. The state joined theNational Popular Vote Interstate Compact in 2009, though the Compact has not yet achieved sufficient national support to be activated.

Massachusetts has 151 departments or agencies and over 700 independent boards and commissions.^[1] The head of the state's Executive Branch is by law theGovernor, but it also has two types of executive officials that do not fall in the Governor's control.Constitutional officers are the elected officials specified by the state constitution, while independent agencies are created by statute and the governor exercises only indirect control through appointments.^[2]

Constitutional officers
Incumbent		Office	Status	Ex officio	Departments	Took office
Officers
	Her Excellency Maura Healey (born 1971)	Governor	Head of state Head of government	Cabinet Governor's Council Commander-in-chief of theNational Guard	Office of Constituent Services Office of Federal-State Relations	5 January 2023 (2 years ago) (2023-01-05)
	Her Honor Kim Driscoll (born 1966)	Lieutenant Governor	Deputy officer	Cabinet Chair of the Governor's Council	Office of Constituent Services Office of Federal-State Relations	5 January 2023 (2 years ago) (2023-01-05)
	His Honor William F. Galvin (born 1950)	Secretary of the Commonwealth	Chief administrator Keeper of the Seal Registrar of deeds Records officer Chief Elections Officer	Head of theMassachusetts Archives Chair of theMassachusetts Historical Commission	Registry of Deeds Office of Campaign and Political Finance Division of Elections Public Records Division	1 January 1995 (30 years ago) (1995-01-01)
	The Honorable Andrea Campbell (born 1982)	Attorney General	Chief legal officer	—	The Energy and Environment Bureau The Government Bureau The Health Care and Fair Competition Bureau The Public Protection and Advocacy Bureau	18 January 2023 (2 years ago) (2023-01-18)
	The Honorable Deb Goldberg (born 1954)	Treasurer and Receiver-General	Treasurer	Chair of theMassachusetts School Building Authority Chair of theMassachusetts Lottery Chair of the State Board of Retirement	Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission Unclaimed Property Division Veterans' Bonus Division Massachusetts Clean Water Trust	21 January 2015 (10 years ago) (2015-01-21)
	The Honorable Diana DiZoglio (born 1983)	State Auditor	Auditor general	—	Bureau of Special Investigations Division of Audit Operations Division of Local Mandates Municipal Finance Oversight Board	18 January 2023 (2 years ago) (2023-01-18)

The Governor's Council consists of eight councilors elected from districts every two years, as well as the lieutenant governor. The council provides foradvice and consent for judicial appointments, appointment of certain public officials includingnotaries public andjustices of the peace,pardons andcommutations, and certain payments from the state treasury.^[3] The governor is the nonvoting president of the council, but is chaired by the Lieutenant Governor in their absence.

• District attorneys andSheriffs - Independently elected by district

Some executive agencies are tasked by the legislature with formulating regulations by following a prescribed procedure. Most of these are collected in theCode of Massachusetts Regulations.

The governor has acabinet of eleven secretaries. They supervise the state agencies, which are under the direct control of the governor.^[4] Nine of the secretaries preside over the executive office of their respective areas.^[5]

The state legislature is formally known as the Massachusetts General Court, reflecting itscolonial-era judicial duties. It has two houses: the 40-memberSenate and the 160-memberHouse of Representatives. Members of both houses have two-year terms. TheSpeaker of the House presides over the House of Representatives and controls the flow of legislation. ThePresident is the presiding officer of the Senate.

The General Court is responsible for enacting the state's laws. A bill signed by the governor, or passed by two-thirds of both houses over his or her veto, becomes law. Itssession laws are published in theActs and Resolves of Massachusetts, which arecodified as theGeneral Laws of Massachusetts. On June 9, 2017,S&P Global Ratings downgraded Massachusetts' bond rating to AA (the third-highest tier) due to the legislature's inability to replenish the state'srainy day fund in the face of above-average economic growth.^[7]

Senate leadership		House leadership
	President ▌Karen Spilka (D -Massachusetts Senate's 2nd Middlesex and Norfolk district)		Speaker of the House ▌Ronald Mariano (D -3rd Norfolk)
	Presidentpro tempore ▌Will Brownsberger (D -2nd Suffolk and Middlesex)		Speakerpro tempore ▌Kate Hogan (D -3rd Middlesex)
	Majority Leader ▌Cynthia Stone Creem (D -1st Middlesex and Norfolk)		Majority Leader Michael Moran (D -18th Suffolk)
	Minority Leader ▌Bruce Tarr (R -1st Essex and Middlesex)		Minority Leader ▌Bradley Jones Jr. (R -20th Middlesex)

Thejudiciary is the branch of the government that interprets and appliesstate law, ensuresequal justice under law, and provides a mechanism fordispute resolution. The Massachusetts court system consists of theSupreme Judicial Court, theAppeals Court, and seven trial-court departments.

Judicial power is centered in the Supreme Judicial Court, which oversees the court system. In addition to its appellate functions, the Supreme Judicial Court is responsible for the governance of the judiciary and thebar, makes (or approves) rules for the operation of the courts and, on request, provides advisory opinions to the governor and legislature on legal issues. The Supreme Judicial Court also oversees affiliated judicial agencies, including the Board of Bar Overseers, the Board of Bar Examiners, the Clients' Security Board, the Massachusetts Mental Health Legal Advisors Committee, and Massachusetts Correctional Legal Services.

The Appeals Court the stateappellate court, which means that the justices review decisions made in the Trial Courts. The Appeals Court also has jurisdiction over appeals from final decisions of three State agencies: the Appellate Tax Board, the Industrial Accident Board and the Commonwealth Employment Relations Board. The Appeals Court consists of a chief justice and twenty-four associate justices.^[10]

• Superior Court
• District Court
• Land Court
• Housing Court
• Juvenile Court
• Probate and Family Court
• Boston Municipal Court

Only the southeastern third of the state has county governments; in western, central, and northeastern Massachusetts, traditional county-level government was eliminated during the late 1990s.District attorneys andsheriffs are elected by constituencies which mainly follow county boundaries, and are funded by the state budget.^[11][12] Sheriff's departments operate correctional facilities and performservice of process in the county.

District attorneys are elected in 11 districts and serve as a publicprosecutor representing the Commonwealth during criminal prosecutions. Most district attorneys are elected within the boundaries of a single county, and the district courts they operate in are within that county. The exception is Hampshire and Franklin Counties and theTown of Athol which make up the Northwestern District; and Barnstable, Dukes, and Nantucket Counties which make up the Cape and Islands District. Some districts that follow traditional county lines are officially known by a different name than the county, but they may also informally be called by the county name.

All counties in Massachusetts have at least oneregistry of deeds, which is responsible for recording and holding copies of deeds, titles, and other land records within their district.^[15] Each registry is run by an elected register of deeds, who serves for 6 year terms. Most counties have one registry, but some are divided into separate districts with their own registry. There are 21 registries.

Massachusetts shares with the five otherNew England states theNew England town form of government. All land in Massachusetts is divided among cities and towns and there are nounincorporated areas, population centers, or townships. Massachusetts has four kinds of public-school districts: local schools, regional schools, vocational-technical schools, and charter schools.

Amendment Article 89 (LXXXIX) of theMassachusetts Constitution defines the powers of self-government that municipalities are entitled to. Additional powers, such as the ability to collect certain taxes, are delegated to municipalities under state law. The article requires that General Laws passed by the General Court apply to at least two municipalities. Special Laws that apply to only one municipality must be enacted in response to a home rule petition from that city or town, or with a two-thirds majority in the General Court, or for the purpose of establishing, disestablishing, or modifying municipal boundaries.^[17]

Proposition 2½ gives municipalities the right to state payment of municipal costs incurred as a result of any new state mandates implemented after January 1, 1981. Cities and towns can vote to accept a new mandate, or ask theMassachusetts State Auditor to determine the amount of funding owed; if the legislature does not provide that amount then ask theMassachusetts Superior Court for a ruling that grants the municipality an exemption from complying with unfunded mandates.^[18]

Massachusetts is known for itsprogressive politics, and is a stronghold ofAmerican Liberalism and theDemocratic Party. In a 2018Gallup poll Massachusetts was the state with the highest percentage of its population identifying as liberal and the lowest percentage identifying as conservative, at 35% and 21% respectively.^[19] This and the high profile of well known politicians from Massachusetts such as theKennedy family has led to the derogatory political phrase "Massachusetts Liberal".

• 48 out of 50 for transparency of electoral candidate financial conflicts of interest (Pioneer Institute, 2019)^[20]
• B− for online access to government spending data (Public Interest Research Group, 2018)^[21]
• Corruption, out of 50 (higher numbers are better): 16 for convictions, 22 for convictions per capita, 49 as ranked by reporters, 39 in lacking stringent laws (2015)^[22]
• D+ for integrity (Center for Public Integrity, 2015)^[23]

The state has anopen-meeting law enforced by the attorney general, and a public-records law enforced by the Secretary of the Commonwealth.^[24] A 2008 report by the Better Government Association and National Freedom of Information Coalition ranked Massachusetts 43rd out of the 50 US states in government transparency. It gave the state a grade of "F", based on the time, cost, and comprehensiveness of access to public records.^[25] Access to government records and the actions of the Secretary in enforcing the law became an issue in the 2014 campaign for the office. Incumbent William Galvin cited his previous requests that the legislature revise the Public Records Law to facilitate access.^[26] According to the governor, he is exempt from the Public Records Law.^[24] A reform law was signed on June 3, 2016 and took effect on January 1, 2017, imposing stricter time limits and lower costs.^[27]

• Administrative divisions of Massachusetts
• Courts of Massachusetts
• Index of Massachusetts-related articles
• Judiciary of Massachusetts
• Law enforcement in Massachusetts
• Law of Massachusetts
• List of United States representatives from Massachusetts
• List of United States senators from Massachusetts
• Massachusetts's congressional districts
• Outline of Massachusetts
• Politics of Massachusetts
• State governments of the United States (comparison)
• United States Congress
• United States congressional delegations from Massachusetts

• Organizational structure of the Government
• Center for Public Integrity; Global Integrity; Public Radio International (2011)."Massachusetts".State Integrity Investigation: Keeping Government Honest. USA.

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