Two schools of thought have primarily dominated dialogue over the core ethos of American political nationalism. The on-going debate concerns whether the normative identity of American people is best explained by a “Lockean-consensus,” a “republican- synthesis,” or even a hybrid “multiple traditions” thesis. This has has been studied by arguing philosophy, observing cyclical trends of social and moral reformist movements, and analyzing policy output. These methodologies are insufficient, however, at deciphering the latent, implicit features of normative ideology. Using critical discursive analysis of core works in these schools of thought, this thesis develops an analytical typology code for ideological foundations of the normative categorical data sets useful to qualitative content analysis.
