This book asserts that there is no political representation without performance. When politicians, protesters, or politically engaged entertainers appear in public, they make or constitute political representation by performing it, shaping how we conceive roles and institutions and imagine society and democracy.

Building theory through rich case material - from the festival stage to the toppling of statues, and from presidential inaugurations to speech and appearance in parliaments and council chambers - the book broadens and deepens our understanding of political representation by exploring how bodies and embodiment, and spaces, stages and settings, create representative claims in our highly mediatised and contested contemporary politics. It shows how a performative take on representation is critical to our understanding of: the symbolism of political authority; the limits of democratic leadership; the politics of material spaces and presences; the dynamics of empowerment and disempowerment in and outside government institutions; unconventional spaces of participation and representation; and the claim to and denial of authenticity in political life.