Abstract

This dissertation concerns the myths that surround the founding of a political society. Subsequent political activity is informed by the founding moment and the crises that founding creates. However, foundings are often mysterious and seemingly beyond words. This is where the political theorist steps in and uses his skills to make comprehensible the powerful and awesome quality of that past event. My thesis is that foundings are, by their very nature, ethically disturbing. The old order must be destroyed in some way. Because a founding continues to haunt a political society the disturbing qualities it creates reverberate down through the generations. The dangers that foundings produce must be dealt with as a society moves through time and the failure to deal with these problems only puts off the reckoning. I look at three modern theorists--Machiavelli, Edmund Burke, and James Madison--in exploring the implications that founding creates. By ending with Madison I hope to bring the lessons of founding "home" to contemporary American political thought