I picked up this 2010 book from Polity as part of the recompense for a reader report. I’m glad I did – it’s a very interesting examination of the political body after the end of the medieval King’s Two Bodies idea explored by Ernst Kantorowicz back in the 1950s (which Foucault discusses in Discipline and Punish). The subtitle ‘The Political Anatomy of Democratic Representation’ describes Manow’s book pretty well, but here’s the blurb from Colin Crouch:

This is a brilliant piece of historical and political analysis, tracing how imagery derived originally from the importance of the corporeal presence of monarchs continues to shape our ways of thinking about political institutions today. The design of parliamentary assemblies, the importance of the personal appearance of political figures and the value of continuity of persons occupying roles can all be seen afresh in the light of this central theme. It is probably the most original contribution to democratic theory for several years.