Authoritarianism, Symbolic Politics, and Music: Strategies of Symbolic Legitimacy in Post-Revolutionary Mexico and Post-Colonial Nigeria

Strategies of symbolic legitimation aim to maintain social order through imaginary representation and rituals establishing or sanctifying temporalities and memories. After proposing a new definition of symbolic politics, this paper examines the use of music in strategies of symbolic legitimation in two post-colonial authoritarian regimes: the post-revolutionary Mexican regime during the 1930s and the Nigerian military regime in the 1970s. The comparison between these two countries helps to understand how the process of nation-building influences strategies of symbolic legitimation.