The Symposium on “Divided Government and the Politics of Constitutional Reform” in the December 1991 issue of PS highlighted the way that critiques of current governmental policies and perceived ailments in the body politic are so often followed in America by proposals for constitutional change. While it is possible, as a number of the symposium participants indicated, to question whether modern diagnoses of the problems are accurate or whether constitutional reforms are the answer, Petracca is certainly correct in telling fellow political scientists that “debate about constitutional and political reform is healthy for the polity because it is an opportunity to rediscover and reconsider America's first principles of government” (1991, 635).

While Petracca (1991, 634) reminded readers that critiques of divided government go at least as far back as Bryce's discussion in The American Commonwealth and Thurber mentioned Woodrow Wilson's reform efforts (1991, 653), it is rare to see a modern reformer who is fully aware of the legacy of reform proposals that now go back over 125 years. Even those who know the most about such history have been unaware of many plans. (See bibliography in Robinson 1985, 328-32; compare to Vile 1991b, 188-92.) This lack of knowledge is unfortunate because such information helps to put modern proposals like those of the Committee on the Constitutional System in perspective.