In the animal kingdom, exhibitions are very common, both interspecific and intraspecific, in which the strength or adaptation to a certain physical or behavioral canon is demonstrated (or exaggerated or deceived), being an object of study for zoologists, ethologists and evolutionary biologists. In front of one's own conspecifics, the performances of power leading to the establishment of hierarchy (dominance hierarchy"),[5]​ determining mating or access to food, are usually carried out through ritualized combats (agonistic behavior), in which violence is more symbolic than real and stops as soon as one of the parties renounces the challenge and activates appeasement signals. Appropriate characteristics are perpetuated through the mechanism called sexual selection.

• - Hedgehog fish.

• - Ruff lizard.

• - Peacock.

• - Gorilla.

• - Goats interacting.

Many of these mechanisms are present in the human species (for example, signs of challenge, threat or intimidation that consist of "baring one's teeth", advancing the face and staring, or those of appeasement or submission that consist of bowing or prostrating - reverence, proskynesis - lowering one's gaze).

Social sciences such as anthropology and ethnology identify similar aspects, which become more sophisticated and stylized in behavior and social organization, in all human groups, regardless of whether they are "primitive", pre-industrial, industrial or post-industrial societies; although in a very different way, and distinguishing at each stage of cultural evolution different types of power relations"), or even denying that such exist as a biological imperative, differentiating competitiveness (a form of intraspecific aggressiveness, as defined by ethologist Konrad Lorenz) from the struggle for power, which would not be common to all human societies (many hunter-gatherer societies would prove this, such as the Eskimos, the Kung of the Kalahari or the aborigines Australians).[6]​ Those forms with deep anthropological roots of staging a dominant position are ritualized combats")[7]​ (which James George Frazer identified in the origin of the monarchy, and in industrial society they are prolonged in sport, in debates and in the very mechanism of elections) or the staging of the character who occupies leadership: intensifying body height with specific headdresses (crowns "Crown (headdress)", feather plumes), which that increases visibility, as well as "dressing up" with special clothing (due to its color or material, which even in the case of uniforms have some distinctive feature),[8]​ reserving first place in access to food (although one of the functions of power is to provide resources for the group) and occupying prominent seats or places of preeminence")[9]​ (thrones, canopies "Palio (canopy)")), or obtaining the use of certain manipulable objects (weapons or agricultural implements -sword, rod-, which in addition to giving visibility, give the real or symbolic capacity to attack, defend and "lead" -guide, drive-, in addition to being interpreted psychoanalytically as phallic symbols and anthropologically as patriarchal), or private means of transport (moving while hoisted on a platform or a shield, or in a sedan chair, royal felucca"),[10] royal carriage"),[11] etc.)[12]​.

• - Indian chiefs in Oregon (United States).

• - Maasai ritual dance, in which young men jump as high as possible.

• - Facial adornment and headdress in Papua New Guinea.

• - Investiture of a mayor in Spain, upon receiving the rod.

• - Pope Pius XII with tiara, gestational chair and flabellum among other distinctive elements.

Exhibitions of power are found in all types of elements present since very ancient times, both in displays of military power (whose effectiveness does not depend only on their effective technical capacity, but also on their spectacularity -uniforms, weapons, war machines, war horses and chariots, war elephants, war ships, changing of the guard")-)[14]​ and in all types of civil works:[15]​ the engineering of public works,[16]​ the architecture of temples, palaces and funerary monuments,[17]​ the urban planning of squares, forums, agoras and other open public spaces,[18]​ or entire cities designed as residences of power,[19]​ figurative arts (paintings and sculptures used to represent rulers, as an effigy on coins,[20]​ court portrait, equestrian or recumbent statue"),[21]​ or glorifying the power of their armies, or represent the submission of the governed -processional marches to give offerings or tributes- or the sad fate of the defeated -or, on the contrary, the magnanimity of power-),[22] occasion of the national day, the name day") or the king's birthday")-,[24]​ delivery of credentials of ambassadors, births"), funerals or royal weddings,[25]​ military or political victories "Victory (triumph)"), etc. -to which correspond, sometimes quantified according to an explicit code, salutes of ordinance"),[26]​ ringing of bells"),[27]​ display or waving of flags and pennants, luminaries and fireworks, masses of Te Deum -thanksgiving-, etc.-).

• - Comares Palace or Hall of the Ambassadors of the Alhambra in Granada.

• - Peterhof Palace waterfall.

• - Artillery salute to mark the birth of Prince George.

• - Ambassador on the way to the Royal Palace of Madrid to present credentials.[28]​.

After the Olympics and the Greek theater "Greek Theater (architecture)") and the Roman triumphs and ludi (in Rome the topic panem et circenses -"bread and circuses"- was coined) came the sacralizing ceremonies of the medieval monarchy (royal consecration -coronation of the Holy Roman Emperor")[29]​ by the Pope, coronation of the King of Romans")[30]​ in Aachen, sacre of the kings of France")[31]​ in Reims-, royal touch) and the jousts and tournaments; after the legendary late-Gothic splendor of the Burgundian court (analyzed by Huizinga in The Autumn of the Middle Ages), the Italian courts of the Renaissance stood out (Leonardo da Vinci acted as master of ceremonies "Master of ceremonies (protocol)") of the court of Milan) and the French of the Baroque (François Vatel for Louis the death -El Escorial-) that Cervantes described in a famous sonnet (1598):.

The ceremonial or court etiquette "Etiquette (code)") and other protocol matters "Protocol (society)") are taken very seriously (even giving rise to serious conflicts), and produced high degrees of refinement, particularly in the Byzantine Empire and in the Far East (Chinese and Japanese imperial courts).

In some cases, such as that of Bali in the 19th century, studied by Clifford Geertz following Max Weber's methodology on charismatic power, we can speak of a true "State-theatre", where "mass rituals were not a construction to strengthen the State, but rather the State was an invention to carry out these mass rituals".[33]​.

Both in Byzantium and in Eastern civilizations, dazzling displays by power were common, the greater the more their effective power was in decline.[34]​ This medieval source describes a practice of the Caliphate of Córdoba at the beginning of the 11th century, set in Medina Azahara or perhaps in the Alcázar of Córdoba:.

Still, you can't fool everyone forever:

• - Mosaics of San Vitale of Ravenna: Emperor Justinian I.

• - Ditto, Empress Theodora.

Contenido

Ciertas escenificaciones tienen una prolongada tradición, como son las entradas reales")[37]​ (imperiales"), pontificales") o presidenciales")). Otras fueron modas pasajeras. La aparición de nuevas tecnologías (grabado, imprenta, fotografía, cine, televisión o internet) modifica el grado de control que las autoridades poseen sobre su imagen, al tiempo que ofrecen nuevos medios de escenificación.

La puesta en escena del poder varía según su naturaleza y la imagen que el gobernante pretende dar de sí mismo en sus relaciones con los gobernados. El poder monárquico magnifica la figura del soberano ante los súbditos, el poder republicano procura respetar, en la forma si no en el fondo, las aspiraciones igualitarias de los ciudadanos. El poder puede jugar la carta de la proximidad o de la distancia, bajar a la calle o vivir retirado tras los muros de palacio, multiplicar las apariciones o hacerlas "caras" deliberadamente. Muestra de ello fue la diferencia en la Monarquía Hispánica entre la rigidez borgoñona de los Habsburgo en los siglos XVI y XVII, y la expansiva presencia pública de los "campechanos" Borbones desde el siglo XVIII.

El problema de la legitimidad del poder influenció su teatralización. El poder hereditario necesita probar su legitimidad (de ahí las fiestas asociadas al nacimiento de un heredero),[38]​ mientras que los gobernantes elegidos pasan por una fase de pesuasión (campaña electoral) en el curso de la cual deben mostrar las cualidades que les hacen aptos.

• - Ciertas puestas en escena pertenecen propiamente a uno u otro poder, por ejemplo, la coronación a la monarquía hereditaria, la campaña electoral a los sistemas electivos.

• - Otras manifestaciones les son comunes, como las ceremonias que se celebraron al final de la Segunda Guerra Mundial, Churchill con los monarcas británicos desde el balcón del Palacio de Buckingham en Londres y el General De Gaulle desde el balcón del Ayuntamiento de París.

Más allá de las exhibiciones más o menos simbólicas o reales de fuerza (castillos, plazas de armas, alardes y desfiles; despliegue de panoplias y armerías), fueron generadores de distintos recursos de puesta en escena del poder la representación artística de las glorias militares (pintura de batallas, Galerie des Batailles")[39]​ del Palacio del Louvre, galería de batallas") del Monasterio de El Escorial, Salón de Reinos del Palacio del Buen Retiro) o del espacio geográfico sobre el que se pretende ejercer el poder (salas de escudos "Escudo (heráldica)") y pendones, la Galería de los Mapas de la Ciudad del Vaticano -en general, todos los recursos cartográficos-[40]​ o las vistas encargadas a Anton Van den Wyngaerde por Felipe II). En España la tradición de cartografía al servicio del poder se remonta a los portulanos mallorquines de los siglos XIII al XV, y aunque inicialmente la información, esencial para la expansión y conservación del Imperio español, era secreta, a medida que se expandió con la imprenta el negocio de la cartografía pública (la mayor parte en Holanda), se fue comprobando su eficacia como mecanismo de escenificación del poder con amplia repercusión (al igual que se comprobó que la divulgación de grabados de las construcciones, retratos, fiestas y otras ceremonias regias tenían incluso más repercusión que las obras o los actos mismos).[41]​ En 1795, Manuel Godoy encomendó a la familia de cartógrafos López el Gabinete Geográfico, adscrito a la Primera Secretaría de Estado y del Despacho Universal. En 1870 se creó el Instituto Geográfico Nacional "Instituto Geográfico Nacional (España)").

Monarchies

In certain societies, the staging of power is fixed in rituals. The sovereign inherits a more or less binding tradition, along with the iura regalia and other stereotypes that he must or can assume when he comes to power.[42] Madame Roland, regarding Louis XVI, said that "kings are educated from childhood in representation."[43]​.

• - The monarch-high pontiff, like the pharaoh of Egypt, is a leader who is both political and religious, and appears in public with the attributes (attributes of the pharaoh) that dramatize his functions and powers. Monumental statues (such as colossi) insist on the different nature of the king compared to the men over whom he reigns, illustrating the divine or quasi-divine nature of his power.

• - Hirohito, Emperor of Japan, as State Shinto Grand Priest.

• - The relatives of Augustus (the first Roman "imperial family") are exhibited in the Ara Pacis (13-9 BC), associating themselves with the sacredness of the enclosure.[44]​.

• - The military monarch-leader is presented as a hero in action, for example in the Roman triumph. When Alexander the Great incorporated the label of the Persian court that he had just defeated, his Greek soldiers openly criticized him for such "effemination", unworthy of the virile role that the warrior leader of the Greeks had to fulfill, much better identified with the equestrian statue that Lysippus made of him, and that later monarchs, even those who did not directly participate in battles, imitated.[45]

• - Alexander the Great depicted as victorious at the Battle of Issos in a Roman mosaic that reproduces an earlier Greek painting.

• - Troop magazine (Mariano Fortuny, 1865). It emphasizes the risk to which the child queen Isabel II was subjected along with her mother, before the troops defending Madrid from a Carlist expedition (1837).

• - The monarch-judge or wise man, exemplified in the biblical Israelite king Solomon and with a counterexample in the legendary Phrygian king Midas (who is represented with donkey ears in the multiple representations of The Calumny of Apelles).[46]​ The historical image of King Saint Louis is that of a wise man dispensing justice under an oak tree. The lit de justice ritual perpetuated this aspect of the royal function.[42]​.

• - The king-thaumaturgist, king by divine right who must incessantly prove his legitimacy through the laying on of hands that cures diseases. A form of ordeal can be seen in this, as well as the fulfillment of the duty of charity "Charity (virtue)"). The concept reappears in the scene of Napoleon visiting the plagued in Jaffa"), commissioned by Bonaparte himself from the painter Antoine-Jean Gros in 1802.[47]​.

• - The monarch-father of his subjects, whose public appearance re-assures that paternal bond. Thus Charles IX of France, instigated by Catherine de' Medici, undertook the "grand tour de France", 1564-1566),[48] with its corollary of festivals, ceremonies and royal entrances").[37] The person of the king and his entourage embody the benevolent authority that stops dissension and restores peace.[49] Of Henry IV of France's concern for the welfare of his subjects remained the cliché "a chicken in every pot", and an image of the king as guarantor of popular nutrition that in the 18th century led to demanding "bread" from the "baker and the baker" (King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette - to whom is attributed the also clichéd response "if they don't have bread, let them eat " -, who did not achieve an adequate public image in that vital aspect. However, in the same century to Charles III of Spain). He was nicknamed "the best mayor of Madrid" (due to the reform policy of his minister Esquilache, despite the fact that it caused a popular riot) and he compared Madrid residents to children, "who cry when they are washed."

Republics

In republics that respect the forms of the republican ideal, nothing should distinguish the figure of the head of state from that of his fellow citizens. As in Oliver Cromwell's Commonwealth, modern republics are heirs to a tradition of simplicity that dates back to Sparta and the beginnings of the Roman Republic. Although security imperatives impose the presence of armed forces, similar to the body guard of monarchies, a discreet appearance is sought, in the background. The public and private life of the head of state is distinguished. There is no heir, so the family of the head of state is not exposed to public light.

One of the most extreme examples was that of Gandhi, who developed devices that were both original and traditional (the dhoti, the pilgrim's staff, the spinning wheel) easily interpreted by his fellow citizens and also by the British themselves before whom he came to vindicate his cause in 1931. The ascetic figure of Gandhi is an extreme attempt to match reality and the ideal of the man of power at the service of the people.

The secularization of republican power in certain European countries will lead to a recovery or replacement of religious symbols with secular ones. The question of the limits of the secular staging of power became thorny at the beginning of the 21st century.

In democracies, electoral campaigns are a moment of high visibility for the candidates to occupy power, and they play the role of staging the candidate. Marius, elected consul in absentia, set out without delay to return to Rome to make himself seen as a winner and demonstrate that the gods had granted him their favor. In the 19th century, Charles Dickens described campaign rituals (shaking voters' hands, kissing children) that continue to be used more than a century later;[70]​ when the teams that manage campaigns already include, along with politicians, communications and advertising advisors (spin doctor, political marketing).

Parliamentary regimes

The staging of national representation in parliamentary regimes reaches a high degree of sophistication in some cases, such as that of the British Parliament (the speaker on his platform, with a wig and toga, arbitrates the ritual confrontation between supporters of the government and the opposition, seated opposite each other on both sides of the House of Commons; everyone has to go out to the House of Lords to listen to the speech, which the king or queen makes annually on behalf of the government). Under romantic conventions, 19th century history painting had as one of its themes the historicist reconstruction, more imagined than credible, of medieval parliaments").[71]

• - The Icelandic Althing (considered the first medieval European parliament), history painting.

• - The first Polish Sejm (1182), history painting.

• - Swearing in of the Constitution of 1812 by the Cortes of Cádiz, the first contemporary Spanish parliament.

• - Lobby of the House of Commons, the British lower house, 1872–1873.

• - Solemn opening of the Swedish Riksdag, 1905.

• - Tsar Nicholas II inaugurates the Duma, 1906.

• - United States Senate, 2007.

• - Austrian Reichsrat, 2007.

• - Changing of the guard")[14]​ before the Boulí ton Ellinon (the Greek parliament).

Dictatorships

In the interwar period, the crisis of the liberal State led in many cases to the explicit departure from the democratic ideal and the establishment of dictatorial regimes with a single party and a charismatic leader, with a profile of savior or providential man: Mussolini in Italy, Stalin in the Soviet Union, Kemal Atatürk in Turkey, Pilsudski in Poland, Hitler in Germany, Oliveira Salazar in Portugal, Francisco Franco in Spain, Mao in China, etc. A true cult of personality was witnessed, with the multiplication of images of the father of the nation ("little father", Atatürk) or savior hero (Duce, Führer, Caudillo, Great Helmsman, etc.) Among the African dictatorships")[72]​ established after decolonization, the Ugandan Idi Amin Dada tried to use similar mechanisms in the 70s to create an image, both before those he governed and before international opinion, of a winner who reversed the roles of colonizer and colonized; an effort in which he was surpassed, until his overthrow and death, by the Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi.[8]​.

Paradoxically, authoritarian or totalitarian regimes, while multiplying propaganda images, hide the true figure of power, to the point that the circulation of rumors about the true state of health of the leaders is excited (Soviet gerontocracy with Stalin and his successors, such as Leonid Brezhnev or Konstantin Chernenko).

In order to prevent any failure in the control of the official stagings, an inversion of the situation operates: the subject, from a spectator, becomes an object of surveillance.[73]​ The "all-powerful" and "invisible" secret services, by their absence from the political scene, construct an even more terrible image of themselves, since they address the imaginary fears of the subjects. This is how the figure of "Big Brother" (''Big Brother) described by George Orwell in his novel 1984 "1984 (novel)") arises.

• - Mussolini on the march on Rome, 1922.

• - From the initial version of Lenin's mausoleum, Stalin eulogizes an Army commander, 1925.

• - Glorifying image of Atatürk.

• - Pilsudski, along with other soldiers, crosses the Poniatowski Bridge in Warsaw during the 1926 coup.

• - Hitler's gestures, carefully studied.

• - Iconography of the Salazarist school in Portugal.

• - Act of the Chilean military junta, with General Pinochet in the center.

• - Idi Amin and Mobutu in 1977.

• - Republican Palace of Baghdad. Center of Saddam Hussein's power, it also became the center of the "Green Zone (Baghdad)", preferred for US occupation.

hidden power

Since the end of the 20th century, the multiplication of security measures, such as surveillance cameras in public places, due to the terrorist threat, is frequently accused of being a drift towards a hidden power") ─cryptarchy) that escapes the control of the citizen─. The term existed previously and is applied to figures with real power but who are not shown publicly but rather operate in the shadows, such as the different historical figures who have been described as "eminence grise". These hidden forces may have real existence or may be the fruit of of a disinformation campaign ─false conspiracy theories, the protocols of the Elders of Zion, the legend of Rasputin, the illuminati, the Bilderberg Club, etc.

According to Michel Foucault, after the fall of the monarchy there was a fundamental shift in the way in which power manifests itself to the people it governs. Until then, incredibly visible to everyone, frontal power soon fades behind the architecture of the institutions in such a way that its elusive nature suggests that it is present everywhere and at all times, although in reality it is absent or weak. In Discipline and Punish, Foucault gives the example of the panopticon, an architectural model imagined by Jeremy Bentham for the construction of prisons that rationalizes the control of crime.

The hidden forces work, therefore, behind the scenes of the political theater, while the elected rulers are described as puppets whose strings they pull, or as unwilling pawns that others move around the political board. In the United States, the breadth of power behind the throne represented by the dynamism of Karl Rove, responsible for Bush's re-election in 2004, is perceptible through the media attention given to the Plame-Wilson scandal"). presidential power, reflects the public's interest in what happens offstage.

Revolutions

Revolutionary periods, periods of inversion and instability of power, also invite stagings, sometimes macabre, when the heads of the enemies of the people are displayed on the tips of pikes. Popular revolutions are particularly interesting from the point of view of staging, given that the people momentarily become holders of power, witnessing an inversion of the representations, as in the carnival, a "world turned upside down", "upside down" (The world turned upside down")).[75]​.

In the English Revolution, the roundheads gave an austere image of the puritanical and dissident Commonwealth (dissenters) due to the simplicity of their staging: they cut their hair short and wore somber clothing to mark their difference with the cavaliers, representatives of a prodigal aristocracy identified with the "established Church" (establishment) or even with popish Catholicism. These, in turn, exaggerated the extravagances of which they were reproached (long, curly hair, dentelles, plumed hats).

It is an opposition that is inspired by the stereotypical representations of Antiquity, opposing the frugal republic of Rome's beginnings with the decadence of its end. The public execution of Charles I was presented to the spirit of the revolutionaries as the last act of a national tragedy: the fall of the proud monarchy.

• - Public execution of Louis XVI.

• - Feast of the Federation at the Champ-de-Mars in Paris, July 14, 1790, the first great spectacle of the French Republic.

• - Demolition of the statue of Louis XIV, August 13, 1793.

The French Revolution also sought its inspiration in ancient history: hairstyles à la Titus, Phrygian caps. The abandonment of the bigwig and culotte of aristocratic fashion set the stage for the democratization of power.[76] Monarchical spaces were "republicanized": place Louis-XV became place de la Révolution, where the guillotine was installed for Louis XVI.[77]​ Executions were also integrated into the staging of revolutionary power. All of Europe (and in particular foreign monarchs) could see, thanks to the engravings,[78]​ the moment of the regicide. One of the concerns of the new power was to organize celebrations, in which the painter Jacques Louis David was maître d'œuvre.[79]​ The Directory continued this policy. The Fête des arts from the 9th to the 10th of thermidor of the year VI celebrated the triumphs in Italy of the army of the Republic commanded by Bonaparte. Ten floats paraded escorted by all the teachers, students and personalities from the world of the arts in the capital. The festival ended with the coronation of the bust of Brutus, an icon of republicanism for his fight against the tyranny of Caesar.[79]​.

• - Charles V in Mühlberg (Titian, 1548).

• - Napoleon crossing the Alps (Jacques-Louis David, 1801-1805).

War or the threat of war modifies the nature of political power, increasing the weight of the executive, the army and the secret services. It imposes staging devices different from those in times of peace, either to give an image of strength or to demonstrate a peaceful character, depending on interest. But even in times of peace, power strives to prostrate its military power for deterrent purposes. Protocol elements of staging, such as the rendering of honors), the review of troops, and the military parade; or more technical, such as public military maneuvers (that is, those designed to be known to both allies and enemies) or even weapons programs that are more propagandistic than effective (for example the so-called Star Wars of the Reagan era) are elements of staging power as a defender of the nation internally, and externally as a power to be taken into account.

After World War II, the nuclear race played an essential role in the so-called "balance of terror" of the Cold War. The Soviet military parades in Moscow's Red Square were staged both for the interior and for foreign observers, who carefully analyzed the significant modifications, however subtle, in the hierarchy of power figures and foreign guests displayed on the tribune, located above Lenin's mausoleum.

• - Signature of the Peace of Westphalia (1648).

• - The railway car where the armistice was signed on the Western Front of the First World War.

• - Peace conference at the Quai D'Orsay (history painting).

• - The Japanese delegation arrives at the USS Missouri, where Japan's surrender in World War II was signed.

• - Civil and religious ceremonies.

• - Sacred oratory and political oratory.

• - Theater.

• - Scenography, ephemeral architecture -Spanish baroque ephemeral architecture-, royal entrances"),[37]​ royal festivals"), tournaments and jousts.

• - Architecture and urbanism, both for evoking sumptuousness, grace or innovation, and for overwhelming the viewer with decorative grandeur. From its beginning, Rome was a city-stage for the staging of power (with the Republic - forum, with its successive reforms, around which the main temples and centers of power were arranged -, the Empire[44] - "palaces" of the Palatine Hill, Marcellus theatre, Domus Aurea, Flavian amphitheater, Pantheon, baths of Caracalla and Diocletian -, the Papacy - Lateran palace, castle Sant'Angelo, Vatican Basilica, St. Peter's Square, fountains, obelisks, the House of Savoy -Monument to Victor Emmanuel II or Altare della patria- or fascism -EUR-). French presidents have traditionally marked the city of Paris with some urban landmark" that would give them prestige (Centre Pompidou, Louvre pyramid, Arch of Defense), as the kings previously did with the bridges (Pont Neuf) or the Places Royales (royal squares) with an obvious political message, such as the equestrian statue of Louis XIV en empereur (as Roman emperor), intended to proclaim French hegemony in Europe (in Place des Victoires) and which was successively the object of ritual destruction and redress, depending on the political situation; or Napoleon's Arc de Triomphe. On the other hand, the outgoing presidents of the United States traditionally name a library after them, while the spectacular display of the monuments in the city of Washington or the giant effigies of Mount Rushmore were made some time after the presidents involved had passed into history. In London, the tower symbolized the presence of the monument for centuries. real power, while on the opposite side of the City (economic and judicial center) a new center of power emerged around Westminster Abbey and Parliament.[86]​ The urban design of cities like Beijing and Moscow gravitates around the centers of power (Forbidden City, Kremlin).[87]​.

• - Sculpture (monuments, statuary, reliefs, medals).

• - Painting (court painters, decoration of public buildings, opening of museums and galleries to the public).

• - Engraving (flyers, pamphlets, songs, almanacs, books, first newspapers). The engraving served both as support for representations of power[89]​ and as a source of inspiration. The emblem books"),[90]​ the illustrated iconology of Cesare Ripa will be important sources for the staging of public festivals and ceremonies.[91]​.

• - Advertising, posters.

• - Photography, particularly photojournalism and photographic portraiture for political propaganda purposes.

• - Cinema (newscasts, political cinema,[92]​ historical cinema).

• - Mass media, political communication, communication policy"), journalism, information policy").[93]​.

• - Television (news, reports, debates, press conferences, broadcast of speeches") and communications -radio speeches"), televised speeches")-,[94]​ political fiction,[95]​ political humor,[96]​ etc.).

• - Internet, blogosphere, social networks.

The staging of power has evolved with the evolution of the means of representation and their reciprocal contamination. Theater influenced public life.[97]​ The art of rhetoric (sacred oratory and political oratory) taught candidates and public men how to manage their popularity with the help of theatrical techniques. Certain historical crises are filled with small dramas staged and represented by politicians. One of the best-known examples is the episode of the burghers of Calais (1346), but also the humiliation of Canossa during the investiture dispute: Emperor Henry IV gave the image of a temporal power literally kneeling before the spiritual power of the Pope. The interview at the Camp du Drap d'Or")[98]​ (1520) staged by Francis I of France sought to demonstrate his superiority over his rival Henry VIII of England. Under the influence of the scenography of Vitruvius, whose work was translated in the 15th century, painters and architects participated in the preparation of great celebrations for the monarchies. Poets and musicians contributed their help to the Versailles festivities.[99]​.

Foreign ambassadors who frequented European courts or rulers were the privileged spectators of these performances and echoed them. His notoriety quickly crossed borders. The correspondence between the centers of power played a great role, which is currently played by contemporary media. Hence the interest that power had in controlling the emails, to allow or intercept them.

But the more the media diversified, the more they escaped the control of power. In all eras, rumor was the declared enemy of the political ethos. The appearance, in a short time, of engraving and printing became new and powerful instruments, allowing the dissemination of images and texts not only in official contexts, but also caricatures and slanderous attacks in pamphlets. Despite the efforts of official censorship, King Henry III of France in the 16th century and Queen Marie Antoinette in the 18th were some of its most notorious victims.

Photography, replacing engraving in newspapers, became a threat to the image of power, which led to the use of photographic retouching to eliminate details that did not conform to the spirit of the intended staging. Soviet propaganda specialized in it. Soon the same thing happened with cinema, radio and later with television. Some politicians were particularly adept at taking advantage of new media, such as Adolf Hitler (Nazi propaganda was theorized by Joseph Goebbels and turned into art by Leni Riefenstahl), Franklin D. Roosevelt (he tried to ensure that his physical disability was not noticed in any public appearance, as demonstrated by the famous photograph of the Yalta Conference), General de Gaulle (with his press conferences and radio speeches, not so much the televised ones),[94] as demonstrated during the revolution. 1968) or John F. Kennedy (who demonstrated his dominance of the television scene in the electoral debate he held with Richard Nixon). Some historical moments of careful scenography are so because they have been immortalized in a scene broadcast on television, such as the Franco-German reconciliation of Douaumont"), in which François Mitterrand and Helmut Kohl held hands.[100]​.

Today, technology allows anyone to take photographs and films, as well as retouch, transform, edit, and disseminate them instantly over the Internet. This forces politicians to be aware of any technological and communication novelty (not limited to official websites), but extended to the blogosphere and multiple social networks, since "Googlearchy" or "Googlecracy")"[101] implies not only that maintaining a positive image of an institution or character is a task that must be managed with the effort of a professional team of managers, but that any unfavorable comment or image from any source has the possibility of reaching a very wide audience) and employing to communication professionals. In France, Nicolas Sarkozy received advice from Thierry Saussez"),[102]​ as in his time François Mitterrand did from Jacques Séguéla").[103]​.

There has been a great confusion of genres, making it difficult to know who, politicians or the media, is responsible for this or that staging. In France, critics speak of mediocracy,[104]​ videocracy, telecracy or theatercracy, or peoplisation")[105]​ to denounce this confusion of genres, especially those that use media that present themselves as neutral. This is notably the case of the audiovisual media, but also of the popular press (pink press, yellow press).

From the Renaissance to the Revolution

The literal quotes are left in French, in the absence of finding published Spanish translations.

These stagings were always the subject of controversy. Some consider them misleading, others necessary (a precocious Realpolitik). Ironically, Erasmus manages to be neither in one camp nor in the other:

Montaigne remarks: [..] au plus eslevé throne du monde, si ne sommes nous assis, que sus nostre cul.*[107]​.

Machiavelli is pragmatic:

Known especially in reference to the work of Thomas More, utopia soon becomes a popular genre. The authors who describe stagings of political power in their utopias do so for edifying or exemplary purposes; They serve to instruct rather than to manipulate. That will be the case of Tommaso Campanella in his City of the Sun.

Like them, Shakespeare questions the phenomenon. Playwright, he has the possibility of putting all his facets on stage. In Julius Caesar "Julius Caesar (Shakespeare)") he attacks demagoguery, showing political theater as theater itself, dependent on the power of the actor over the crowd (Caesar's coronation scene, irony in the funeral scene, which Mark Antony takes advantage of in his favor even when he seems to be speaking in favor of Brutus). In Richard III "Richard III (Shakespeare)") shows the king, a wolf in sheep's clothing, acting out before Parliament his role as an unambitious devotee of powers. But this staging is only effective thanks to the presence of a device that guarantees success: the slap). "Coriolanus (Shakespeare) (not yet written)")* attacks the staging of electoral campaigns (already existing in his time), making one of his characters say: dédaignerait l'usage de montrer aux plébéiens ses blessures, pour mendier (disait-il) leurs voix empestées*.[110]​.

The theater, choosing its heroes among exemplary historical figures (in good or bad), can allow itself to comment on the different stagings of political power without alerting the censorship, since it is not the author who speaks through his mouth. This is what the French theater of the 17th century did. In Britannicus&action=edit&redlink=1 "Britannicus (Racine) (not yet written)"), Racine denounces the abuses of the political staging that hides a tyrannical and corrupt power. To Britannicus "British (son of Claudius)"), who accuses him of hiding the truth, Nero replies: Rome ne porte point ses regards curieux /jusque dans des secrets que je cache à ses yeux.[111]​.

In his Dictionnaire philosophique portatif, Voltaire writes an article entitled "Cérémonies, titres, prééminence". For him, these are devices designed to materialize the social hierarchy and the relationships of dependence of the little ones on the powerful. The multiplication of ceremonies is a means of closing social classes:.

. On the eve of the Revolution, his criticisms are so common that a comedy like The Marriage of Figaro is immediately decoded as a denunciation of aristocratic licentiousness and the survival of feudal practices. The piece, written in 1778, was not censored until 1784.

20th century

George Orwell revealed totalitarian control mechanisms in his dystopia 1984 "1984 (novel)"), which inspired Terry Gilliam's film Brazil, where he staged the terrible appearances of the armed wing of a faceless power.

Orwell himself made a satire on the totalitarian drift of revolutions in Animal Farm ("rebellion on the farm"), where anthropomorphized animals establish a regime of terror over consciences.

The theme of the appearance and substance of power was recurrent in the cultural productions of the era of World War II and the Cold War, visible even in The Wizard of Oz, apparently a children's story.

The development of sociology, anthropology or ethnology contributed to introducing a critical distance between social rituals and their recipients. Plato had called Athenian democracy "theatrocracy", considering that political power was staged through theater and public speech. The expression was updated by the French ethnologist Georges Balandier in 1992 to describe the Mediatization&action=edit&redlink=1 "Mediatization (media) (not yet written)") of political life in contemporary democracies, a true spectacle politics").[112]​.

Finally, semiology and semiotics provided philosophers and critics with new analytical tools to study the phenomenon, distinguishing what information and communication have in terms of propagation against the resistance of other ideas and values. These analyzes in turn provoke a resurgence of interest in rhetoric and its theoretical texts, giving rise to a mediological vision that includes the technical devices for processing information and the organization of influence groups.

In German.

• - Paul Zanker"), Augustus und die Macht der Bilder, Beck, 1997 (there is a Spanish translation: Augustus and the power of images, Alianza, 1992).

In French.

• - Marie-France Auzépy") and Joël Cornette") (dir.), Palais et pouvoir: De Constantinople à Versailles, Press Univ. de Vincennes, 2003[113]​.

• - Antoine de Baecque, La Cérémonie du pouvoir: Les duels sur la scène politique française de la Révolution à nos jours (excerpts).

• - Mireille Corbier"), Agnès Bérenger-Badel") and Eric Perrin-Saminadayar") (dir.), Les entrées royales et impériales : histoire, représentations et diffusion d'une cérémonie Pública, de l'Orient ancien à Byzance, colloque, CNRS, L’Année épigraphique, Paris, 27-29 October 2005.

• - Marc Bloch, Les Rois thaumaturges. Études sur le caractère surnaturel attribué à la puissance royale, particulièrement en France et en Angleterre, Gallimard, 1924 (Les Rois thaumaturges")).

• - Gilles Boëtsch") and Christoph Wulf") (dir.), Archived April 15, 2016 at the Wayback Machine., monograph, no. 43, 2005 (CNRS).

In the animal kingdom, exhibitions are very common, both interspecific and intraspecific, in which the strength or adaptation to a certain physical or behavioral canon is demonstrated (or exaggerated or deceived), being an object of study for zoologists, ethologists and evolutionary biologists. In front of one's own conspecifics, the performances of power leading to the establishment of hierarchy (dominance hierarchy"),[5]​ determining mating or access to food, are usually carried out through ritualized combats (agonistic behavior), in which violence is more symbolic than real and stops as soon as one of the parties renounces the challenge and activates appeasement signals. Appropriate characteristics are perpetuated through the mechanism called sexual selection.

• - Hedgehog fish.

• - Ruff lizard.

• - Peacock.

• - Gorilla.

• - Goats interacting.

Many of these mechanisms are present in the human species (for example, signs of challenge, threat or intimidation that consist of "baring one's teeth", advancing the face and staring, or those of appeasement or submission that consist of bowing or prostrating - reverence, proskynesis - lowering one's gaze).

Social sciences such as anthropology and ethnology identify similar aspects, which become more sophisticated and stylized in behavior and social organization, in all human groups, regardless of whether they are "primitive", pre-industrial, industrial or post-industrial societies; although in a very different way, and distinguishing at each stage of cultural evolution different types of power relations"), or even denying that such exist as a biological imperative, differentiating competitiveness (a form of intraspecific aggressiveness, as defined by ethologist Konrad Lorenz) from the struggle for power, which would not be common to all human societies (many hunter-gatherer societies would prove this, such as the Eskimos, the Kung of the Kalahari or the aborigines Australians).[6]​ Those forms with deep anthropological roots of staging a dominant position are ritualized combats")[7]​ (which James George Frazer identified in the origin of the monarchy, and in industrial society they are prolonged in sport, in debates and in the very mechanism of elections) or the staging of the character who occupies leadership: intensifying body height with specific headdresses (crowns "Crown (headdress)", feather plumes), which that increases visibility, as well as "dressing up" with special clothing (due to its color or material, which even in the case of uniforms have some distinctive feature),[8]​ reserving first place in access to food (although one of the functions of power is to provide resources for the group) and occupying prominent seats or places of preeminence")[9]​ (thrones, canopies "Palio (canopy)")), or obtaining the use of certain manipulable objects (weapons or agricultural implements -sword, rod-, which in addition to giving visibility, give the real or symbolic capacity to attack, defend and "lead" -guide, drive-, in addition to being interpreted psychoanalytically as phallic symbols and anthropologically as patriarchal), or private means of transport (moving while hoisted on a platform or a shield, or in a sedan chair, royal felucca"),[10] royal carriage"),[11] etc.)[12]​.

• - Indian chiefs in Oregon (United States).

• - Maasai ritual dance, in which young men jump as high as possible.

• - Facial adornment and headdress in Papua New Guinea.

• - Investiture of a mayor in Spain, upon receiving the rod.

• - Pope Pius XII with tiara, gestational chair and flabellum among other distinctive elements.

Exhibitions of power are found in all types of elements present since very ancient times, both in displays of military power (whose effectiveness does not depend only on their effective technical capacity, but also on their spectacularity -uniforms, weapons, war machines, war horses and chariots, war elephants, war ships, changing of the guard")-)[14]​ and in all types of civil works:[15]​ the engineering of public works,[16]​ the architecture of temples, palaces and funerary monuments,[17]​ the urban planning of squares, forums, agoras and other open public spaces,[18]​ or entire cities designed as residences of power,[19]​ figurative arts (paintings and sculptures used to represent rulers, as an effigy on coins,[20]​ court portrait, equestrian or recumbent statue"),[21]​ or glorifying the power of their armies, or represent the submission of the governed -processional marches to give offerings or tributes- or the sad fate of the defeated -or, on the contrary, the magnanimity of power-),[22] occasion of the national day, the name day") or the king's birthday")-,[24]​ delivery of credentials of ambassadors, births"), funerals or royal weddings,[25]​ military or political victories "Victory (triumph)"), etc. -to which correspond, sometimes quantified according to an explicit code, salutes of ordinance"),[26]​ ringing of bells"),[27]​ display or waving of flags and pennants, luminaries and fireworks, masses of Te Deum -thanksgiving-, etc.-).

• - Comares Palace or Hall of the Ambassadors of the Alhambra in Granada.

• - Peterhof Palace waterfall.

• - Artillery salute to mark the birth of Prince George.

• - Ambassador on the way to the Royal Palace of Madrid to present credentials.[28]​.

After the Olympics and the Greek theater "Greek Theater (architecture)") and the Roman triumphs and ludi (in Rome the topic panem et circenses -"bread and circuses"- was coined) came the sacralizing ceremonies of the medieval monarchy (royal consecration -coronation of the Holy Roman Emperor")[29]​ by the Pope, coronation of the King of Romans")[30]​ in Aachen, sacre of the kings of France")[31]​ in Reims-, royal touch) and the jousts and tournaments; after the legendary late-Gothic splendor of the Burgundian court (analyzed by Huizinga in The Autumn of the Middle Ages), the Italian courts of the Renaissance stood out (Leonardo da Vinci acted as master of ceremonies "Master of ceremonies (protocol)") of the court of Milan) and the French of the Baroque (François Vatel for Louis the death -El Escorial-) that Cervantes described in a famous sonnet (1598):.

The ceremonial or court etiquette "Etiquette (code)") and other protocol matters "Protocol (society)") are taken very seriously (even giving rise to serious conflicts), and produced high degrees of refinement, particularly in the Byzantine Empire and in the Far East (Chinese and Japanese imperial courts).

In some cases, such as that of Bali in the 19th century, studied by Clifford Geertz following Max Weber's methodology on charismatic power, we can speak of a true "State-theatre", where "mass rituals were not a construction to strengthen the State, but rather the State was an invention to carry out these mass rituals".[33]​.

Both in Byzantium and in Eastern civilizations, dazzling displays by power were common, the greater the more their effective power was in decline.[34]​ This medieval source describes a practice of the Caliphate of Córdoba at the beginning of the 11th century, set in Medina Azahara or perhaps in the Alcázar of Córdoba:.

Still, you can't fool everyone forever:

• - Mosaics of San Vitale of Ravenna: Emperor Justinian I.

• - Ditto, Empress Theodora.

Contenido

Ciertas escenificaciones tienen una prolongada tradición, como son las entradas reales")[37]​ (imperiales"), pontificales") o presidenciales")). Otras fueron modas pasajeras. La aparición de nuevas tecnologías (grabado, imprenta, fotografía, cine, televisión o internet) modifica el grado de control que las autoridades poseen sobre su imagen, al tiempo que ofrecen nuevos medios de escenificación.

La puesta en escena del poder varía según su naturaleza y la imagen que el gobernante pretende dar de sí mismo en sus relaciones con los gobernados. El poder monárquico magnifica la figura del soberano ante los súbditos, el poder republicano procura respetar, en la forma si no en el fondo, las aspiraciones igualitarias de los ciudadanos. El poder puede jugar la carta de la proximidad o de la distancia, bajar a la calle o vivir retirado tras los muros de palacio, multiplicar las apariciones o hacerlas "caras" deliberadamente. Muestra de ello fue la diferencia en la Monarquía Hispánica entre la rigidez borgoñona de los Habsburgo en los siglos XVI y XVII, y la expansiva presencia pública de los "campechanos" Borbones desde el siglo XVIII.

El problema de la legitimidad del poder influenció su teatralización. El poder hereditario necesita probar su legitimidad (de ahí las fiestas asociadas al nacimiento de un heredero),[38]​ mientras que los gobernantes elegidos pasan por una fase de pesuasión (campaña electoral) en el curso de la cual deben mostrar las cualidades que les hacen aptos.

• - Ciertas puestas en escena pertenecen propiamente a uno u otro poder, por ejemplo, la coronación a la monarquía hereditaria, la campaña electoral a los sistemas electivos.

• - Otras manifestaciones les son comunes, como las ceremonias que se celebraron al final de la Segunda Guerra Mundial, Churchill con los monarcas británicos desde el balcón del Palacio de Buckingham en Londres y el General De Gaulle desde el balcón del Ayuntamiento de París.

Más allá de las exhibiciones más o menos simbólicas o reales de fuerza (castillos, plazas de armas, alardes y desfiles; despliegue de panoplias y armerías), fueron generadores de distintos recursos de puesta en escena del poder la representación artística de las glorias militares (pintura de batallas, Galerie des Batailles")[39]​ del Palacio del Louvre, galería de batallas") del Monasterio de El Escorial, Salón de Reinos del Palacio del Buen Retiro) o del espacio geográfico sobre el que se pretende ejercer el poder (salas de escudos "Escudo (heráldica)") y pendones, la Galería de los Mapas de la Ciudad del Vaticano -en general, todos los recursos cartográficos-[40]​ o las vistas encargadas a Anton Van den Wyngaerde por Felipe II). En España la tradición de cartografía al servicio del poder se remonta a los portulanos mallorquines de los siglos XIII al XV, y aunque inicialmente la información, esencial para la expansión y conservación del Imperio español, era secreta, a medida que se expandió con la imprenta el negocio de la cartografía pública (la mayor parte en Holanda), se fue comprobando su eficacia como mecanismo de escenificación del poder con amplia repercusión (al igual que se comprobó que la divulgación de grabados de las construcciones, retratos, fiestas y otras ceremonias regias tenían incluso más repercusión que las obras o los actos mismos).[41]​ En 1795, Manuel Godoy encomendó a la familia de cartógrafos López el Gabinete Geográfico, adscrito a la Primera Secretaría de Estado y del Despacho Universal. En 1870 se creó el Instituto Geográfico Nacional "Instituto Geográfico Nacional (España)").

Monarchies

In certain societies, the staging of power is fixed in rituals. The sovereign inherits a more or less binding tradition, along with the iura regalia and other stereotypes that he must or can assume when he comes to power.[42] Madame Roland, regarding Louis XVI, said that "kings are educated from childhood in representation."[43]​.

• - The monarch-high pontiff, like the pharaoh of Egypt, is a leader who is both political and religious, and appears in public with the attributes (attributes of the pharaoh) that dramatize his functions and powers. Monumental statues (such as colossi) insist on the different nature of the king compared to the men over whom he reigns, illustrating the divine or quasi-divine nature of his power.

• - Hirohito, Emperor of Japan, as State Shinto Grand Priest.

• - The relatives of Augustus (the first Roman "imperial family") are exhibited in the Ara Pacis (13-9 BC), associating themselves with the sacredness of the enclosure.[44]​.

• - The military monarch-leader is presented as a hero in action, for example in the Roman triumph. When Alexander the Great incorporated the label of the Persian court that he had just defeated, his Greek soldiers openly criticized him for such "effemination", unworthy of the virile role that the warrior leader of the Greeks had to fulfill, much better identified with the equestrian statue that Lysippus made of him, and that later monarchs, even those who did not directly participate in battles, imitated.[45]

• - Alexander the Great depicted as victorious at the Battle of Issos in a Roman mosaic that reproduces an earlier Greek painting.

• - Troop magazine (Mariano Fortuny, 1865). It emphasizes the risk to which the child queen Isabel II was subjected along with her mother, before the troops defending Madrid from a Carlist expedition (1837).

• - The monarch-judge or wise man, exemplified in the biblical Israelite king Solomon and with a counterexample in the legendary Phrygian king Midas (who is represented with donkey ears in the multiple representations of The Calumny of Apelles).[46]​ The historical image of King Saint Louis is that of a wise man dispensing justice under an oak tree. The lit de justice ritual perpetuated this aspect of the royal function.[42]​.

• - The king-thaumaturgist, king by divine right who must incessantly prove his legitimacy through the laying on of hands that cures diseases. A form of ordeal can be seen in this, as well as the fulfillment of the duty of charity "Charity (virtue)"). The concept reappears in the scene of Napoleon visiting the plagued in Jaffa"), commissioned by Bonaparte himself from the painter Antoine-Jean Gros in 1802.[47]​.

• - The monarch-father of his subjects, whose public appearance re-assures that paternal bond. Thus Charles IX of France, instigated by Catherine de' Medici, undertook the "grand tour de France", 1564-1566),[48] with its corollary of festivals, ceremonies and royal entrances").[37] The person of the king and his entourage embody the benevolent authority that stops dissension and restores peace.[49] Of Henry IV of France's concern for the welfare of his subjects remained the cliché "a chicken in every pot", and an image of the king as guarantor of popular nutrition that in the 18th century led to demanding "bread" from the "baker and the baker" (King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette - to whom is attributed the also clichéd response "if they don't have bread, let them eat " -, who did not achieve an adequate public image in that vital aspect. However, in the same century to Charles III of Spain). He was nicknamed "the best mayor of Madrid" (due to the reform policy of his minister Esquilache, despite the fact that it caused a popular riot) and he compared Madrid residents to children, "who cry when they are washed."

Republics

In republics that respect the forms of the republican ideal, nothing should distinguish the figure of the head of state from that of his fellow citizens. As in Oliver Cromwell's Commonwealth, modern republics are heirs to a tradition of simplicity that dates back to Sparta and the beginnings of the Roman Republic. Although security imperatives impose the presence of armed forces, similar to the body guard of monarchies, a discreet appearance is sought, in the background. The public and private life of the head of state is distinguished. There is no heir, so the family of the head of state is not exposed to public light.

One of the most extreme examples was that of Gandhi, who developed devices that were both original and traditional (the dhoti, the pilgrim's staff, the spinning wheel) easily interpreted by his fellow citizens and also by the British themselves before whom he came to vindicate his cause in 1931. The ascetic figure of Gandhi is an extreme attempt to match reality and the ideal of the man of power at the service of the people.

The secularization of republican power in certain European countries will lead to a recovery or replacement of religious symbols with secular ones. The question of the limits of the secular staging of power became thorny at the beginning of the 21st century.

In democracies, electoral campaigns are a moment of high visibility for the candidates to occupy power, and they play the role of staging the candidate. Marius, elected consul in absentia, set out without delay to return to Rome to make himself seen as a winner and demonstrate that the gods had granted him their favor. In the 19th century, Charles Dickens described campaign rituals (shaking voters' hands, kissing children) that continue to be used more than a century later;[70]​ when the teams that manage campaigns already include, along with politicians, communications and advertising advisors (spin doctor, political marketing).

Parliamentary regimes

The staging of national representation in parliamentary regimes reaches a high degree of sophistication in some cases, such as that of the British Parliament (the speaker on his platform, with a wig and toga, arbitrates the ritual confrontation between supporters of the government and the opposition, seated opposite each other on both sides of the House of Commons; everyone has to go out to the House of Lords to listen to the speech, which the king or queen makes annually on behalf of the government). Under romantic conventions, 19th century history painting had as one of its themes the historicist reconstruction, more imagined than credible, of medieval parliaments").[71]

• - The Icelandic Althing (considered the first medieval European parliament), history painting.

• - The first Polish Sejm (1182), history painting.

• - Swearing in of the Constitution of 1812 by the Cortes of Cádiz, the first contemporary Spanish parliament.

• - Lobby of the House of Commons, the British lower house, 1872–1873.

• - Solemn opening of the Swedish Riksdag, 1905.

• - Tsar Nicholas II inaugurates the Duma, 1906.

• - United States Senate, 2007.

• - Austrian Reichsrat, 2007.

• - Changing of the guard")[14]​ before the Boulí ton Ellinon (the Greek parliament).

Dictatorships

In the interwar period, the crisis of the liberal State led in many cases to the explicit departure from the democratic ideal and the establishment of dictatorial regimes with a single party and a charismatic leader, with a profile of savior or providential man: Mussolini in Italy, Stalin in the Soviet Union, Kemal Atatürk in Turkey, Pilsudski in Poland, Hitler in Germany, Oliveira Salazar in Portugal, Francisco Franco in Spain, Mao in China, etc. A true cult of personality was witnessed, with the multiplication of images of the father of the nation ("little father", Atatürk) or savior hero (Duce, Führer, Caudillo, Great Helmsman, etc.) Among the African dictatorships")[72]​ established after decolonization, the Ugandan Idi Amin Dada tried to use similar mechanisms in the 70s to create an image, both before those he governed and before international opinion, of a winner who reversed the roles of colonizer and colonized; an effort in which he was surpassed, until his overthrow and death, by the Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi.[8]​.

Paradoxically, authoritarian or totalitarian regimes, while multiplying propaganda images, hide the true figure of power, to the point that the circulation of rumors about the true state of health of the leaders is excited (Soviet gerontocracy with Stalin and his successors, such as Leonid Brezhnev or Konstantin Chernenko).

In order to prevent any failure in the control of the official stagings, an inversion of the situation operates: the subject, from a spectator, becomes an object of surveillance.[73]​ The "all-powerful" and "invisible" secret services, by their absence from the political scene, construct an even more terrible image of themselves, since they address the imaginary fears of the subjects. This is how the figure of "Big Brother" (''Big Brother) described by George Orwell in his novel 1984 "1984 (novel)") arises.

• - Mussolini on the march on Rome, 1922.

• - From the initial version of Lenin's mausoleum, Stalin eulogizes an Army commander, 1925.

• - Glorifying image of Atatürk.

• - Pilsudski, along with other soldiers, crosses the Poniatowski Bridge in Warsaw during the 1926 coup.

• - Hitler's gestures, carefully studied.

• - Iconography of the Salazarist school in Portugal.

• - Act of the Chilean military junta, with General Pinochet in the center.

• - Idi Amin and Mobutu in 1977.

• - Republican Palace of Baghdad. Center of Saddam Hussein's power, it also became the center of the "Green Zone (Baghdad)", preferred for US occupation.

hidden power

Since the end of the 20th century, the multiplication of security measures, such as surveillance cameras in public places, due to the terrorist threat, is frequently accused of being a drift towards a hidden power") ─cryptarchy) that escapes the control of the citizen─. The term existed previously and is applied to figures with real power but who are not shown publicly but rather operate in the shadows, such as the different historical figures who have been described as "eminence grise". These hidden forces may have real existence or may be the fruit of of a disinformation campaign ─false conspiracy theories, the protocols of the Elders of Zion, the legend of Rasputin, the illuminati, the Bilderberg Club, etc.

According to Michel Foucault, after the fall of the monarchy there was a fundamental shift in the way in which power manifests itself to the people it governs. Until then, incredibly visible to everyone, frontal power soon fades behind the architecture of the institutions in such a way that its elusive nature suggests that it is present everywhere and at all times, although in reality it is absent or weak. In Discipline and Punish, Foucault gives the example of the panopticon, an architectural model imagined by Jeremy Bentham for the construction of prisons that rationalizes the control of crime.

The hidden forces work, therefore, behind the scenes of the political theater, while the elected rulers are described as puppets whose strings they pull, or as unwilling pawns that others move around the political board. In the United States, the breadth of power behind the throne represented by the dynamism of Karl Rove, responsible for Bush's re-election in 2004, is perceptible through the media attention given to the Plame-Wilson scandal"). presidential power, reflects the public's interest in what happens offstage.

Revolutions

Revolutionary periods, periods of inversion and instability of power, also invite stagings, sometimes macabre, when the heads of the enemies of the people are displayed on the tips of pikes. Popular revolutions are particularly interesting from the point of view of staging, given that the people momentarily become holders of power, witnessing an inversion of the representations, as in the carnival, a "world turned upside down", "upside down" (The world turned upside down")).[75]​.

In the English Revolution, the roundheads gave an austere image of the puritanical and dissident Commonwealth (dissenters) due to the simplicity of their staging: they cut their hair short and wore somber clothing to mark their difference with the cavaliers, representatives of a prodigal aristocracy identified with the "established Church" (establishment) or even with popish Catholicism. These, in turn, exaggerated the extravagances of which they were reproached (long, curly hair, dentelles, plumed hats).

It is an opposition that is inspired by the stereotypical representations of Antiquity, opposing the frugal republic of Rome's beginnings with the decadence of its end. The public execution of Charles I was presented to the spirit of the revolutionaries as the last act of a national tragedy: the fall of the proud monarchy.

• - Public execution of Louis XVI.

• - Feast of the Federation at the Champ-de-Mars in Paris, July 14, 1790, the first great spectacle of the French Republic.

• - Demolition of the statue of Louis XIV, August 13, 1793.

The French Revolution also sought its inspiration in ancient history: hairstyles à la Titus, Phrygian caps. The abandonment of the bigwig and culotte of aristocratic fashion set the stage for the democratization of power.[76] Monarchical spaces were "republicanized": place Louis-XV became place de la Révolution, where the guillotine was installed for Louis XVI.[77]​ Executions were also integrated into the staging of revolutionary power. All of Europe (and in particular foreign monarchs) could see, thanks to the engravings,[78]​ the moment of the regicide. One of the concerns of the new power was to organize celebrations, in which the painter Jacques Louis David was maître d'œuvre.[79]​ The Directory continued this policy. The Fête des arts from the 9th to the 10th of thermidor of the year VI celebrated the triumphs in Italy of the army of the Republic commanded by Bonaparte. Ten floats paraded escorted by all the teachers, students and personalities from the world of the arts in the capital. The festival ended with the coronation of the bust of Brutus, an icon of republicanism for his fight against the tyranny of Caesar.[79]​.

• - Charles V in Mühlberg (Titian, 1548).

• - Napoleon crossing the Alps (Jacques-Louis David, 1801-1805).

War or the threat of war modifies the nature of political power, increasing the weight of the executive, the army and the secret services. It imposes staging devices different from those in times of peace, either to give an image of strength or to demonstrate a peaceful character, depending on interest. But even in times of peace, power strives to prostrate its military power for deterrent purposes. Protocol elements of staging, such as the rendering of honors), the review of troops, and the military parade; or more technical, such as public military maneuvers (that is, those designed to be known to both allies and enemies) or even weapons programs that are more propagandistic than effective (for example the so-called Star Wars of the Reagan era) are elements of staging power as a defender of the nation internally, and externally as a power to be taken into account.

After World War II, the nuclear race played an essential role in the so-called "balance of terror" of the Cold War. The Soviet military parades in Moscow's Red Square were staged both for the interior and for foreign observers, who carefully analyzed the significant modifications, however subtle, in the hierarchy of power figures and foreign guests displayed on the tribune, located above Lenin's mausoleum.

• - Signature of the Peace of Westphalia (1648).

• - The railway car where the armistice was signed on the Western Front of the First World War.

• - Peace conference at the Quai D'Orsay (history painting).

• - The Japanese delegation arrives at the USS Missouri, where Japan's surrender in World War II was signed.

• - Civil and religious ceremonies.

• - Sacred oratory and political oratory.

• - Theater.

• - Scenography, ephemeral architecture -Spanish baroque ephemeral architecture-, royal entrances"),[37]​ royal festivals"), tournaments and jousts.

• - Architecture and urbanism, both for evoking sumptuousness, grace or innovation, and for overwhelming the viewer with decorative grandeur. From its beginning, Rome was a city-stage for the staging of power (with the Republic - forum, with its successive reforms, around which the main temples and centers of power were arranged -, the Empire[44] - "palaces" of the Palatine Hill, Marcellus theatre, Domus Aurea, Flavian amphitheater, Pantheon, baths of Caracalla and Diocletian -, the Papacy - Lateran palace, castle Sant'Angelo, Vatican Basilica, St. Peter's Square, fountains, obelisks, the House of Savoy -Monument to Victor Emmanuel II or Altare della patria- or fascism -EUR-). French presidents have traditionally marked the city of Paris with some urban landmark" that would give them prestige (Centre Pompidou, Louvre pyramid, Arch of Defense), as the kings previously did with the bridges (Pont Neuf) or the Places Royales (royal squares) with an obvious political message, such as the equestrian statue of Louis XIV en empereur (as Roman emperor), intended to proclaim French hegemony in Europe (in Place des Victoires) and which was successively the object of ritual destruction and redress, depending on the political situation; or Napoleon's Arc de Triomphe. On the other hand, the outgoing presidents of the United States traditionally name a library after them, while the spectacular display of the monuments in the city of Washington or the giant effigies of Mount Rushmore were made some time after the presidents involved had passed into history. In London, the tower symbolized the presence of the monument for centuries. real power, while on the opposite side of the City (economic and judicial center) a new center of power emerged around Westminster Abbey and Parliament.[86]​ The urban design of cities like Beijing and Moscow gravitates around the centers of power (Forbidden City, Kremlin).[87]​.

• - Sculpture (monuments, statuary, reliefs, medals).

• - Painting (court painters, decoration of public buildings, opening of museums and galleries to the public).

• - Engraving (flyers, pamphlets, songs, almanacs, books, first newspapers). The engraving served both as support for representations of power[89]​ and as a source of inspiration. The emblem books"),[90]​ the illustrated iconology of Cesare Ripa will be important sources for the staging of public festivals and ceremonies.[91]​.

• - Advertising, posters.

• - Photography, particularly photojournalism and photographic portraiture for political propaganda purposes.

• - Cinema (newscasts, political cinema,[92]​ historical cinema).

• - Mass media, political communication, communication policy"), journalism, information policy").[93]​.

• - Television (news, reports, debates, press conferences, broadcast of speeches") and communications -radio speeches"), televised speeches")-,[94]​ political fiction,[95]​ political humor,[96]​ etc.).

• - Internet, blogosphere, social networks.

The staging of power has evolved with the evolution of the means of representation and their reciprocal contamination. Theater influenced public life.[97]​ The art of rhetoric (sacred oratory and political oratory) taught candidates and public men how to manage their popularity with the help of theatrical techniques. Certain historical crises are filled with small dramas staged and represented by politicians. One of the best-known examples is the episode of the burghers of Calais (1346), but also the humiliation of Canossa during the investiture dispute: Emperor Henry IV gave the image of a temporal power literally kneeling before the spiritual power of the Pope. The interview at the Camp du Drap d'Or")[98]​ (1520) staged by Francis I of France sought to demonstrate his superiority over his rival Henry VIII of England. Under the influence of the scenography of Vitruvius, whose work was translated in the 15th century, painters and architects participated in the preparation of great celebrations for the monarchies. Poets and musicians contributed their help to the Versailles festivities.[99]​.

Foreign ambassadors who frequented European courts or rulers were the privileged spectators of these performances and echoed them. His notoriety quickly crossed borders. The correspondence between the centers of power played a great role, which is currently played by contemporary media. Hence the interest that power had in controlling the emails, to allow or intercept them.

But the more the media diversified, the more they escaped the control of power. In all eras, rumor was the declared enemy of the political ethos. The appearance, in a short time, of engraving and printing became new and powerful instruments, allowing the dissemination of images and texts not only in official contexts, but also caricatures and slanderous attacks in pamphlets. Despite the efforts of official censorship, King Henry III of France in the 16th century and Queen Marie Antoinette in the 18th were some of its most notorious victims.

Photography, replacing engraving in newspapers, became a threat to the image of power, which led to the use of photographic retouching to eliminate details that did not conform to the spirit of the intended staging. Soviet propaganda specialized in it. Soon the same thing happened with cinema, radio and later with television. Some politicians were particularly adept at taking advantage of new media, such as Adolf Hitler (Nazi propaganda was theorized by Joseph Goebbels and turned into art by Leni Riefenstahl), Franklin D. Roosevelt (he tried to ensure that his physical disability was not noticed in any public appearance, as demonstrated by the famous photograph of the Yalta Conference), General de Gaulle (with his press conferences and radio speeches, not so much the televised ones),[94] as demonstrated during the revolution. 1968) or John F. Kennedy (who demonstrated his dominance of the television scene in the electoral debate he held with Richard Nixon). Some historical moments of careful scenography are so because they have been immortalized in a scene broadcast on television, such as the Franco-German reconciliation of Douaumont"), in which François Mitterrand and Helmut Kohl held hands.[100]​.

Today, technology allows anyone to take photographs and films, as well as retouch, transform, edit, and disseminate them instantly over the Internet. This forces politicians to be aware of any technological and communication novelty (not limited to official websites), but extended to the blogosphere and multiple social networks, since "Googlearchy" or "Googlecracy")"[101] implies not only that maintaining a positive image of an institution or character is a task that must be managed with the effort of a professional team of managers, but that any unfavorable comment or image from any source has the possibility of reaching a very wide audience) and employing to communication professionals. In France, Nicolas Sarkozy received advice from Thierry Saussez"),[102]​ as in his time François Mitterrand did from Jacques Séguéla").[103]​.

There has been a great confusion of genres, making it difficult to know who, politicians or the media, is responsible for this or that staging. In France, critics speak of mediocracy,[104]​ videocracy, telecracy or theatercracy, or peoplisation")[105]​ to denounce this confusion of genres, especially those that use media that present themselves as neutral. This is notably the case of the audiovisual media, but also of the popular press (pink press, yellow press).

From the Renaissance to the Revolution

The literal quotes are left in French, in the absence of finding published Spanish translations.

These stagings were always the subject of controversy. Some consider them misleading, others necessary (a precocious Realpolitik). Ironically, Erasmus manages to be neither in one camp nor in the other:

Montaigne remarks: [..] au plus eslevé throne du monde, si ne sommes nous assis, que sus nostre cul.*[107]​.

Machiavelli is pragmatic:

Known especially in reference to the work of Thomas More, utopia soon becomes a popular genre. The authors who describe stagings of political power in their utopias do so for edifying or exemplary purposes; They serve to instruct rather than to manipulate. That will be the case of Tommaso Campanella in his City of the Sun.

Like them, Shakespeare questions the phenomenon. Playwright, he has the possibility of putting all his facets on stage. In Julius Caesar "Julius Caesar (Shakespeare)") he attacks demagoguery, showing political theater as theater itself, dependent on the power of the actor over the crowd (Caesar's coronation scene, irony in the funeral scene, which Mark Antony takes advantage of in his favor even when he seems to be speaking in favor of Brutus). In Richard III "Richard III (Shakespeare)") shows the king, a wolf in sheep's clothing, acting out before Parliament his role as an unambitious devotee of powers. But this staging is only effective thanks to the presence of a device that guarantees success: the slap). "Coriolanus (Shakespeare) (not yet written)")* attacks the staging of electoral campaigns (already existing in his time), making one of his characters say: dédaignerait l'usage de montrer aux plébéiens ses blessures, pour mendier (disait-il) leurs voix empestées*.[110]​.

The theater, choosing its heroes among exemplary historical figures (in good or bad), can allow itself to comment on the different stagings of political power without alerting the censorship, since it is not the author who speaks through his mouth. This is what the French theater of the 17th century did. In Britannicus&action=edit&redlink=1 "Britannicus (Racine) (not yet written)"), Racine denounces the abuses of the political staging that hides a tyrannical and corrupt power. To Britannicus "British (son of Claudius)"), who accuses him of hiding the truth, Nero replies: Rome ne porte point ses regards curieux /jusque dans des secrets que je cache à ses yeux.[111]​.

In his Dictionnaire philosophique portatif, Voltaire writes an article entitled "Cérémonies, titres, prééminence". For him, these are devices designed to materialize the social hierarchy and the relationships of dependence of the little ones on the powerful. The multiplication of ceremonies is a means of closing social classes:.

. On the eve of the Revolution, his criticisms are so common that a comedy like The Marriage of Figaro is immediately decoded as a denunciation of aristocratic licentiousness and the survival of feudal practices. The piece, written in 1778, was not censored until 1784.

20th century

George Orwell revealed totalitarian control mechanisms in his dystopia 1984 "1984 (novel)"), which inspired Terry Gilliam's film Brazil, where he staged the terrible appearances of the armed wing of a faceless power.

Orwell himself made a satire on the totalitarian drift of revolutions in Animal Farm ("rebellion on the farm"), where anthropomorphized animals establish a regime of terror over consciences.

The theme of the appearance and substance of power was recurrent in the cultural productions of the era of World War II and the Cold War, visible even in The Wizard of Oz, apparently a children's story.

The development of sociology, anthropology or ethnology contributed to introducing a critical distance between social rituals and their recipients. Plato had called Athenian democracy "theatrocracy", considering that political power was staged through theater and public speech. The expression was updated by the French ethnologist Georges Balandier in 1992 to describe the Mediatization&action=edit&redlink=1 "Mediatization (media) (not yet written)") of political life in contemporary democracies, a true spectacle politics").[112]​.

Finally, semiology and semiotics provided philosophers and critics with new analytical tools to study the phenomenon, distinguishing what information and communication have in terms of propagation against the resistance of other ideas and values. These analyzes in turn provoke a resurgence of interest in rhetoric and its theoretical texts, giving rise to a mediological vision that includes the technical devices for processing information and the organization of influence groups.

In German.

• - Paul Zanker"), Augustus und die Macht der Bilder, Beck, 1997 (there is a Spanish translation: Augustus and the power of images, Alianza, 1992).

In French.

• - Marie-France Auzépy") and Joël Cornette") (dir.), Palais et pouvoir: De Constantinople à Versailles, Press Univ. de Vincennes, 2003[113]​.

• - Antoine de Baecque, La Cérémonie du pouvoir: Les duels sur la scène politique française de la Révolution à nos jours (excerpts).

• - Mireille Corbier"), Agnès Bérenger-Badel") and Eric Perrin-Saminadayar") (dir.), Les entrées royales et impériales : histoire, représentations et diffusion d'une cérémonie Pública, de l'Orient ancien à Byzance, colloque, CNRS, L’Année épigraphique, Paris, 27-29 October 2005.

• - Marc Bloch, Les Rois thaumaturges. Études sur le caractère surnaturel attribué à la puissance royale, particulièrement en France et en Angleterre, Gallimard, 1924 (Les Rois thaumaturges")).

• - Gilles Boëtsch") and Christoph Wulf") (dir.), Archived April 15, 2016 at the Wayback Machine., monograph, no. 43, 2005 (CNRS).