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181 World Affs. 4 (2018)

handle is hein.journals/wrldaf181 and id is 1 raw text is: NOTE FROM THE EDITOR Welcome to the Spring issue of World Affairs! This issue's cover depicts George Washington presiding over the United States' Constitutional Convention in 1787 and heralds our leading article's subject in many ways. Max J. Skidmore, Curators' Dis- tinguished Professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, offers some considered Thoughts on Constitutions that will certainly lead readers to ponder the role of the public in democratic constitutional (re)formulation anywhere. The article touches on, inter alia, recent efforts in Iceland to crowdsource a new constitution, interpreting the American founding fathers' intentions, electoral college misbehavior, and the place of the popular will in the 2016 U.S. election and current Republican policies. Recent developments, notes Skidmore, indicate that the political institutions established by the U.S. Constitution may be vulnerable to the point of fragility. It is a point that new or reworked constitutions everywhere would do well to learn from. The U.S. Electoral College, for instance, has stymied the popular will twice in the last 16 years-with catastrophic consequences. The latest one, we are told, may well be existentially catastrophic. Skidmore's reflections will likely kindle deep thought about how far political elites in the United States, Iceland, and beyond market policy narratives that appeal to the masses, behind which still lurk in ambush so many elite interests. They should also inspire deliberation on the nature of genuine and functional popular participa- tion, the conditions that make it genuine and functional, and the pros and cons of majority rule. Michael J. Faber's extremely interesting contribution guarantees that readers will never look at the 'American frontier' again in the same way. For those with a political theory background, it may also be the case that they never regard John Locke's view of the state of nature the same way either. Faber traces the unparalleled influence that Lockean liberalism exerted on American political thought and practice. In doing so, he critically assesses the value of the wild ... uncivilized, and down- right peculiar American frontier as one example of a state of nature in 4 WORLD AFFAIRS