An effigy is a sculptural representation, often life-size, of a specific person or a prototypical figure. The term is mostly used for the makeshift dummies used for symbolic punishment in political protests and for the figures burned in certain traditions around New Year, Carnival and Easter. In European cultures, effigies were used in the past for punishment in formal justice when the perpetrator could not be apprehended, and in popular justice practices of social shaming and exclusion. Additionally, "effigy" is used for certain traditional forms of sculpture, namely tomb effigies, funeral effigies and coin effigies.

There is a large overlap and exchange between the ephemeral forms of effigies. Traditional holiday effigies are often politically charged, for instance, when the generalised figures Año Viejo (the Old Year) or Judas in Latin America are substituted by the effigy of a despised politician. Traditional forms are also borrowed for political protests. In India, for instance, effigies in protests regularly take the form of the ten-headed demon king Ravana, as they figure in the traditional Ramlila. In Mexico and the United States piñatas depicting a politician are sometimes taken to protests and beaten to a pulp. Procedures of formal and popular justice are appropriated when the effigy of a politician in a protest figures in a mock trial, mock execution and mock funeral.

In all cases, except the traditional effigies, there is an emphasis on the social and political aspects of the depicted person. Tomb effigies and funeral effigies exhibit attire and office insignia that indicate social status; coin effigies are signs of sovereignty; formal punishment of an effigy was synonymous to social death; popular punishment was meant to humiliate and ostracise the depicted; effigies in political protests ridicule and attack the honour of the targeted politician.

The word efigy is first documented in English in 1539 and comes, perhaps via French, from the Latin singular form effigies, meaning "copy, image, likeness, portrait, and statue". This spelling was originally used in English for singular senses: even a single image was "the effigies of ...". (This spelling seems to have been later reanalyzed as a plural, creating the singular effigy.) In effigie was probably understood as a Latin phrase until the 18th century. The word occurs in Shakespeare's As You Like It of 1600 (II, vii, 193), where scansion suggests that the second syllable is to be emphasized, as in the Latin pronunciation (but unlike the modern English pronunciation).

Hanging or burning the effigy of a political enemy to ridicule and dishonour them is a very old and very widespread practice. It is reported that in 1328, the troops of Holy Roman Emperor Louis IV, on their campaign in Italy to unseat Pope John XXII, burned a straw puppet of the pope. Burning effigies in political protests is especially widespread in India and Pakistan. In the Philippines, the practice came up during the successful People Power Revolution against the regime of President Marcos. Since then effigy protests against the successive presidents developed into elaborate spectacles. US President George W. Bush and President Barack Obama have been burned in effigy numerous times in protests against military operations and occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq in the countries in the region as well as elsewhere. During the Arab Spring of 2011 and onward, effigies of the countries' leaders have been hanged in Egypt, Libya, Yemen and Syria.

In the British colonies in New England, effigy performances gained prominence as an effective tool in the protests against the 1765 Stamp Act, leading to the American Revolution and the founding of the United States of America. Afterwards, it became an established form of political expression in US politics, and almost every US President has been burned in effigy at some point in his career.

The best known British example of a political effigy is the figure of Guy Fawkes, one of the conspirators in the Gunpowder Plot who tried to assassinate King James I in 1605 by blowing up the House of Lords. Already a year later, the 5th of November was declared a holiday to celebrate the survival of the king and was celebrated with bonfires. Soon after, effigies of Guy Fawkes were burned. Traditionally, children make effigies from old clothing filled with straw to beg for "a penny for the guy", and communities build their own bonfires. Currently, Lewes, on the south coast of England has the most elaborate celebrations of Guy Fawkes Night. Competing bonfire societies make effigies of important and unpopular figures in current affairs and burn them alongside effigies of Guy Fawkes and the Pope.

In Port Said, Egypt, the al-Limby (formerly known as Allenby) is burned during Spring Festival. The tradition started after the First World War, when demonstrators burned an effigy of British High Commissioner for Egypt Lord Allenby during a protest against the presence of British troops in the city. In the second half of the 20th century it became custom to portray contemporary enemies of Egypt as the al-Limby. During the Arab Spring, effigies of President Mubarak and other Egyptian politicians were exhibited and burned as the al-Limby.