Performance, Theatricality and the Us Presidency

Explores the role of performance in US presidential politics The erosion of trust in politicians and political institutions is a major challenge in early twenty-first-century democratic politics, not least in the USA. 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. Through a sustained, and empirically backed exploration of the function of performance within US presidential politics, Performance, Theatricality and the US Presidency shows that performance and distrust are interlinked and ineradicable elements of representative democracy. The book explores performance as a constellation of factors such as scripts, embodiment, ideas of selfhood, and historical norms and ideals. It draws on key scholarship on political representation, rhetoric and populism; theories of performativity, theatricality and acting; and interviews the author conducted with political speechwriters, which span presidential administrations and campaigns from Ronald Reagan to Barack Obama, to show that populism distrust becomes a focal point around which the theatre of politics revolves. Julia Peetz is a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at the University of Warwick, UK.