The ritual production of political candidacy

Abstract

When electoral processes are established, the candidates to political positions starts a ritual action that is intended to add to the candidate not only support, but also put him as a legitimate representative of certain collectives. During this process, they seek a schedule of face-to-face contact, in which their bases of support and what is said about him by the collectives that give him credit can be extended to the others voters of a locality. In each city they pass, the candidates inaugurate a committee, and then they went back to the town, have a meeting, pray, commune, make a walk or a motorcade, talk to people, present themselves with the remarkable of the city or people that within it may have some projection, and slowly mark their territory in the body and imaginary of the city. The aim of this paper is to present how this ritual pro- cess occurred in a candidacy for Congress in the southern of the State of Minas Gerais during the 2010 elections.