ABSTRACT
This chapter steps back from routine state administration and representation to the underpinnings of a deeper metaconstitutional settlement that includes all spheres. It traces important currents of thinking, premodern and modern, about foundings, revolutions, and the constituent power. A sphere pluralist approach requires a fundamentally different understanding than in mainstream liberal political theory about what it means to found a social order and what risks must be forestalled in the long term. Guardianship of a sphere pluralist order requires, for example, buffers against the gradual concentration of authority or emerging imbalances or encroachment across spheres. Ancient and mediaeval ideas of monarchy as an equilibrium point in the social order can inform analogous guardianship in a global context. Institutions above and among the spheres, with a limited but vital role, can maintain equilibrium. The analysis suggests a novel understanding of the monopoly on coercion and how elements of a metaconstitutional settlement might interact in future reforms or crises.
