Beacon Hill leaders stifle debate among legislators - Boston Globe

It won’t come as a bolt from the blue that freewheeling debate, robust dissent, and meaningful roll call votes have become endangered species on Beacon Hill...

But it is one thing to know in the abstract that the proceedings of the Massachusetts Legislature have little in common with the civics-class version of “How a Bill Becomes a Law.” It is something else to actually measure the disparity. That’s what MassINC, the nonpartisan Boston think tank, did this spring in CommonWealth, its quarterly magazine.