NEW YORK -- The Writing of the American Constitution in 1787 was an extraordinary event, honored as the "Miracle at Philadelphia" by Catherine Drinker Bowen and "the greatest piece of work ever struck off at a given time by the brain and purpose of man" by Gladstone. Yet as formerly authoritarian countries such as Iraq and Afghanistan begin to draw up their own constitutions and enter the world of representative government, that achievement may come to seem even more extraordinary. The reason is that the issues with which the Founding Fathers were wrestling that hot summer were not particular to...