Célébrations et cérémonial de la république

Abstract

Any political power manifests itself at once in the control it can exercise over constraints and in the possibilities it has for dramatising itself in ceremonies whose purpose is to integrate and mobilise citizens for a common end. Political power simultaneously asserts it legitimacy, its hierarchy and its priorities. The rites involved in State etiquette, municipal elections, inaugurations and inductions all exemplify the way politics showcases itself and what social effects it produces in doing so. Besides the conditions that are most favourable to the appearances of such rites, we also investigate their dynamics and their obsolescence in different political regimes, as well as the reasons that account for the current interest in political liturgy among anthropologists.