  Since the first attempts to quantize Gauge Theories and Gravity in the loop
representation, the problem of the determination of the corresponding classical
actions has been raised. Here we propose a general procedure to determine these
actions and we explicitly apply it in the case of electromagnetism. Going to
the lattice we show that the electromagnetic action in terms of loops is
equivalent to the Wilson action, allowing to do Montecarlo calculations in a
gauge invariant way. In the continuum these actions need to be regularized and
they are the natural candidates to describe the theory in a ``confining
phase''.
