On the Theatrical Dimension of Political Representation: Beyond the Usual Approaches

Throughout my comparative work on political representation, my insistent aim has been to link three aspects, namely: cultural representations, the representation of interests and theatrical representations. It is worth dwelling on the third aspect which remains under-invested by social scientists. To the extent that the literature on political representation takes account of the theatrical dimension at all, it is generally to point out symbolic manipulations (as is very clear in many anthropological or historical works and within studies on political communication). Here, I would like to depart a little bit from such conventional approaches and suggest some new directions for study.