CESifo Working Paper No. 1524
The Making of Cultural Policy:
A European Perspective
'If it is art, it is not for everybody and if it is for everybody, it is not art', Arnold Schonberg, 1945
Abstract
No good comparable data on sizes of cultural sectors of the countries of Europe exist. Still,
local and national governments of Europe spend substantial resources on culture and cultural
sectors contribute significantly to employment and national income. After briefly describing
special features of cultural goods and clarifying some misconceptions about the value of
culture, valid and invalid arguments for subsidising culture are discussed. Although it is easy
to justify government support for preservation of heritage, this is more difficult for the
performing arts. Due to changing technologies and advent of E-culture classic public-good
arguments for government intervention in broadcasting and other cultural activities become
less relevant. Different institutions varying from selection by arts councils, bureaucrats or
politicians to less directed tax incentives lead to different cultural landscapes. Theories of
delegation suggest delegating the judgement on artistic qualities and execution of cultural
policy to an independent Arts Fund. The Minister of Culture should concentrate on
formulating a mission for cultural policy and make sure it is implemented properly. The
insights of the theories of local public goods and federalism are applied to the making of
cultural policy in Europe. Different approaches to international cultural policy in Europe are
discussed. The overview concludes with lessons for the making of cultural policy in Europe.
JEL Code: H2, H4, P51, Z11.
Keywords: cultural policy, heritage, performing arts, museums, quality, participation,
vouchers, tax incentives, quality, politicians, bureaucrats, delegation.
Frederick van der Ploeg
Robert Schuman Centre, European University Institute
Badia Fiesolana, Via dei Roccettini 9
50016 San Domenico di Fiesole
Italy
Former State Secretary for Education, Culture and Sciences of the Netherlands (1998-2002).
Some of the arguments come from my main White Paper - van der Ploeg (1999) - and van der
Ploeg (2003). See OCW (2003) for the making of cultural policy in the Netherlands. I thank
Vladimir Bina for advice on data for the sizes of cultural sectors in Europe and Jan Honout
for helpful discussions. I am also grateful to the participants and the discussant Françoise
Benhamou of the conference on ‘The Economics of Art and Culture’, Princeton University,
10-12 September 2004 and to Sir Alan Peacock and David Throsby for their helpful
comments.