Note from the Editor

Welcome to Politics & Policy's second issue of 2018! Being Co-Editor of P&P for the last 12 years has been a rewarding experience in many ways. However, one of the most interesting aspects I have found has been the opportunity to observe over time the distribution of submissions in various subfields of the political and policy sciences. There are most definitely “trends” of submissions in certain areas that move with the times, the topical policy issues of the day, or the release of useful new data. One salient example of this led to P&P's Editorial Office receiving—independently, I add—six submissions on various aspects of the legalization of recreational marijuana within the space of eleven days last year! We had not received more than a handful of submissions focusing on any aspect of marijuana policy over the last eight years, and published only one of these on medical marijuana use (Ferraiolo 2009) during that period. This issue begins with the two excellent articles on the legalization of cannabis in the United States that passed our rigorous peer-review process last year. In the leading article of this issue, Fisk and coauthors discuss the highs and lows of the budgetary politics of recreational marijuana use in the first generation of legalizing states (Colorado, Oregon, Alaska, and Washington), linking it to the policy innovation literature. They use comparative state data to explore the associated political and legal risks as well as using marijuana dollars as an option for administrators seeking alternative revenue sources for public services. Relatedly, Branton and McGauvran's paper takes the discussion of recreational cannabis use in a new direction by exposing a clear link between climates favorable for cultivation and the support for the legalization of recreational marijuana. A main suggestion here is that “climate context” is an important and previously overlooked factor influencing support. Another longer-term trend has been a steadily increasing number of submissions on Sub-Saharan African politics and policies—which reached its highest level yet in 2017 and seems set to continue. While we are particularly interested in publishing comparative international studies in the area of Sub-Saharan Africa (see e.g., Antwi-Boateng 2017; Asongu and Nwachukwu 2016; Nwokora and Pelizzo 2015), we have also published several weighty contributions dealing with individual African countries or bilateral/border issues (see e.g., Byrne 2016) that form a basis for future comparative studies. Our next two articles this month fall into this category. Abdulai and coauthors focus on the economic geography of persistent poverty in Northern Ghana (cf. Fonchingong 2014, for a similar study in Cameroon) while Ikeanyibe's contribution investigates bureaucratic motivations and activities in the systematic derailing of the decision to unbundle the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation and privatize some of its subsidiaries. In our fifth article, Mayer and coauthors take on one of the most contentious policies in the United States in recent memory—the Affordable Care Act—continuing a gamut of conversations in our previous articles on that piece of legislation (see e.g., Bernick and Myers 2012; Malloy, Pearson-Merkowitz, and Morris 2016). Mayer and colleagues show that, despite recent events and threats to Obamacare, some state legislatures may increasingly be making health care choices based on the needs of the citizens in the state and less on partisanship. Perhaps surprisingly, submissions to P&P on Canadian politics and policy issues have always been a rather “mixed bag” ranging from criminal youth policy (Heinmiller, Hennigar, and Kopec 2017) to Claude Denis’ (2007) memorable and engagingly written “Canadians in Trouble Abroad.” Our final study by Massie and Zyla looks at the perennial discussions surrounding free riding and applies them to explain why second-tier powers, like Canada, decided not to free ride in lending substantial and risky military support to the U.S.-led interventions in Afghanistan. While this exploration of disproportionate military burden sharing is decidedly innovative, it is interesting to compare it to a similar contribution to the journal on bilateral cooperation and bounded sovereignty between the United States and Canada of nine years ago (see Biswas 2009). I very much hope you enjoy the articles in this issue of Politics & Policy and look forward to receiving your continued submissions at https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/polpol David Mena Alemán Editor-in-Chief

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