Politics, theatricality and theology. ‘Surrogation’ in contemporary Europe

In his monumental work The King's Two Bodies, Ernst Kantorowicz suggests that the development, in the late Middle Ages, of a secularized conception of royal sovereignty, is directly linked with 'the theatrical'. More specifically, royal succession ceremonies show clearly a subtle iconographic dramaturgy, especially in the use of the effigy. The specific combination of aspect of Roman public law with Christological elements in theology - i.e. political theology in Kantorowicz' sense - is, on its turn, linked to a 'surrogation' - a notion introduced by Joseph Roach, referring to the embodiment of the historical memory of a given community. With a secular dogmatic of public law as its backdrop - the notion of sovereignty, in the version of Jean Bodin -, early Modernity is characterized by a double fascination, concerning the image of political power : the theatre as a privileged locus for the embodiment of the 'surrogate' of political power, and the theology as a conceptual repertory of political legitimacy without real metaphysical reference.
In my paper, I wil actualize this intertwinement between legal dogmatic, theology and theatricality in 20th century politics. The case of Ronald Reagan, President of the United States between 1980 and 1988 is a good example. Formed by a protestant education stressing the importance of rhetoric, fascinated by the political imagery of President Franklin Roosevelt (the suggestive intimacy of his radio talks), Reagan embodied the optimism of a consumerist society and he became, as a politician, the 'surrogate' of a nation inspired by the ideals of manifest destiny of the North-American colonies. In the persona of Reagan, theatricality - as a general concept, referring to the conscious mise-en-scène of the fascination for the image of a community - and theology - in the decisionist sense of Carl Schmitt - were united in more than one sense. In my research, I will not confine myself to the Reagan-case, but I will make a inventory and (provisional) analysis of this surrogation in less personalized contexts such, e.g. the creation of New Labour in the United Kingdom, the development of a post-communist identity in the former German Democratic Republic and the failure of a constitutional embodiment of the European Union.