The dynamics of institutional performatives: Between practical reasoning and symbolic value—A case study from Roman antiquity

Abstract

The purpose of the present paper is to analyze the dynamics of performatives, with special focus on normatively charged institutions as legal-political ones, with the help of a case study coming from Roman antiquity: the appointment of Julius Caesar as “perpetual dictator”, as it is analyzed by Licandro (2022). That analysis shows both how institutional performatives are established and how they are subject to tensions and changes in their course of application. On that basis, I will make two hypotheses. First, the power of legal-political performatives is (also) grounded in what I will call “symbolic value”: a special feature of certain linguistic expressions which is historically related to religious rituals. Second, symbolic value and practical (i.e., means-end) reasoning are not alternative explanations, they are partners both in establishing legal-political performatives and in driving their application through time.