The Rise of Performance in Mass Democratic Politics
This paper examines the rise of performative politics, and argues that as social conditions have become increasingly “defused,” political actors have had to work in a more consciously symbolic way to communicate with and persuade their audiences. Defusion is introduced to suggest that political actors must work more routinely and dramatically to inhabit the authority rooted in their offices. Examining changes in presidential leadership strategies, public understandings of citizenship, and news production and media technologies over the course of the twentieth century, this article details how the amorphous arena we call politics has become increasingly organized in a theatrical way.