French Cultural Policy Enters a Pivotal era
Performing Arts Network, Japan,
01 February 2005, France
In France, the national government takes a leading role in supporting the arts. Also, since the birth of a socialist party government in 1981, the budget for cultural programs has nearly doubled, to the point that it now represents nearly 1% of the entire national budget. It is also a widely accepted fact that a wider variety of creative activities, including mass (entertainment) culture, have become recipients of this cultural support from the government, and that, despite the fact that the national government takes the leading role, there has also been a trend toward decentralization and greater shift of decision-making rights to the localities. In recent years, however, studies have emerged that question these commonly held ideas about France’s cultural policies and programs since the 1980s. In the following pages I would like to refer to these recent studies in taking another look at the actual state of cultural support conducted by the national and local governments with special focus on the question of “democratization of culture.”