Why are we interested in Gerhard Schröder's hair color or Silvio Berlusconi's cosmetic surgeries? Philip Manow answers: Because a part of the symbolic significance that once resided in the body of the king lives on in democracy, not only in the ruler's body but also in the central political body of representative democracy: the parliament. Manow chooses the design of modern plenary halls as the starting point for his essay on the political anatomy of democracy. Through further considerations on the immunity of parliamentarians, the public nature of parliamentary proceedings, and the question of why George W. Bush's motorcade always includes several identical Cadillacs, he concludes that the theoretical ideas of the state from the Middle Ages have survived in modern democracy.