In the second republic of 1848-51 he was briefly foreign minister and drafter of a constitution that lasted barely a year.

ECONOMIST: Liberty and democracy

Among the 22 people who signed the petition are seven, including its drafter, Ling Cangzhou, from Charter 08's first group of signatories.

ECONOMIST: Dissent in China

Take the chief drafter of the Euston text, Norman Geras, a Manchester-based political scientist who grew up in white-ruled Rhodesia and still calls himself, with qualifications, a Marxist.

ECONOMIST: Muslims and socialists

Blakey, who was the principal drafter of RICO while counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee, can only stand idly by as his creation takes on a life of its own.

FORBES: Can, and Should, NewsCorp Actually Be Tried Like the Mafia?

Robert Stern, the president of the non-partisan Centre for Governmental Studies in Los Angeles (and a drafter of initiatives since the 1970s), believes that direct democracy cannot and should not be ditched wholesale.

ECONOMIST: Direct democracy