The Making of Cultural Policy: A European Perspective

39

for shaping cultural policy than the British model, but is more susceptible to lobbying. One should keep
the committees of experts small, appoint the experts for not too long periods and allow interested laymen
on the committees as well. Since the task of deciding on the artistic merit and financial needs of different
cultural organisations is a difficult task, lobbies in the cultural sector are strong and politicians tend to
focus on the short term and act in a time-inconsistent fashion, recent theories of delegation suggest it is
best to delegate the execution of cultural policy to an independent Arts Fund while the Minister of
Culture restricts itself to setting out a mission with clear priorities, criteria and budgets and making sure
the Arts Fund adheres to the mission.

More demand-oriented subsidies, such as vouchers, interest free loans, matching funds finance,
public-finance partnerships etc., stimulate the cultural sector to produce art for which there is a demand in
society. The danger with this is that safe, boring, better known art wins from innovative art. Hence,
special facilities are needed to stimulate experimental art and research & development.

The performing arts are labour intensive and suffer like education, health care and police from
Baumol's cost disease. Productivity growth in the arts lags behind other sectors. Relative price increases
and greater pressure for bigger art subsidies result. Still, the newly found riches of technical progress
elsewhere leads to extra demand for culture, especially if culture is a luxury good. There may be a shift
from unique to reproductive art expressions, from small-scale to large-scale productions and from labour-
extensive to labour-intensive productions. In addition, the performing arts are good at lobbying and
letting themselves be heard. Hence, the performing arts may swallow a growing proportion of the total
culture budget at the expense of other cultural needs. This is somewhat of a paradox, since the
performing arts are much less a public good than reproductive art forms. The paradox is difficult to
swallow, since subsidies for the performing arts profit a highly educated, high income minority living in
the big cities. Hence, governments should be careful to provide sufficient funds for cultural causes which
benefit current and future generations such as monuments, archaeology and museums.

Governments in Europe should avoid addiction to cultural subsidies and sustaining the status quo
by allowing equal chances for newcomers and having a level playing field. In the Renaissance there was
fierce competition between producers of art and also some degree of specialisation. Now a healthy gust
of domestic and foreign competition and more market-oriented support from governments can be
important motors behind a revival of the creative and innovative arts sectors of Europe.

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