Schmerz undHegung. Das Politische und die Institutionalisierung seiner Grenzen Albert Dikovich University of Konstanz * albert.dikovich@uni-konstanz.de A BSTRACT .Mypaper aims tooutline the concept of the pathic foundation (pathische Stiftung) of political institutions. I depart from the observation of a lack of clarity concerning the resources of institutional stability inthe workofChantal Mou feandtheproponentso fagonisticdemocracy. Drawingfrom theideasof ClaudeLefort andCarl vonClausewitz, I sketchtheideathat theexperienceof con fict itsel f generates themoral andepistemic groundings (pathic evidence) that legitimize andstabilize its institutionalregulations.Itis within the pathic experience of exhaustioninthe face of the results of escalatingcon fict that a common groundof legitimacy is reached. The bulk of my paper is dedicatedto the phenomenological analysis of thefoundational pathic experience, of the pathicdispositionof political subjectivityresultingfrom it, andof its institutional manifestations. K EYWORDS . DemocracyTheory; PathicDisposition; Political Philosophy; Post-Fundamentalism * Correspondence: AlbertDikovich–Universität Konstanz, FBLiteraturwissenschaft, 78464 Konstanz, Germany Metodo Vol. 8, n. 1 (2020) DOI: 10.19079/metodo.8.1.195