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Performance, Theatricality and the Us Presidency: The Currency of Distrust

Performance, Theatricality and the Us Presidency: The Currency of Distrust

Hardcover

General ReferenceGeneral World HistoryUnited States Politics

ISBN10: 1399509985
ISBN13: 9781399509985
Publisher: Edinburgh Univ Pr
Published: May 18 2023
Pages: 256
Weight: 1.06
Height: 0.56 Width: 6.14 Depth: 9.21
Language: English

The erosion of trust in politicians and political institutions is a major challenge in early twenty-first-century democratic politics, not least in the United States. This book argues that, rather than being a flaw or corruption, the potential for political distrust must be understood as an essential feature of representative democracy because representation works through performance. The book explores performance as a constellation of factors: scripts, embodiment, ideas of selfhood, and historical norms and ideals. It draws on key scholarship of political representation, rhetoric, and populism; on theories of performativity, theatricality, and acting; and on interviews the author conducted with political speechwriters spanning presidential administrations and campaigns from Ronald Reagan to Barack Obama to demonstrate both that distrust is inherent in representative politics and that in mainstreamed populism distrust becomes a focal point around which the theatre of politics revolves.

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United States Politics