Annual Lecture 2022 (sign up here)

Overview

Since the 1940s governments in liberal democracies have pursued policies to directly support the arts, by grants to artists and arts organizations, through arm’s length funding councils and direct expenditure from executive government. Eligibility for funding, and the amount of funding, vary across countries, but even in countries where there is some public opposition to such funding, such as the United States, it has endured as a policy. But within any nation cultural tastes held by individuals vary extremely widely, and what distinctions that might once have existed between “high” and “low” culture have blurred in a world of cultural omnivores. If it is a principle of public policy that there is no disputing tastes, and that in a liberal society it is inappropriate for the state to attempt to shape the cultural tastes of the public, how can public funding for the arts be justified? This lecture will consider the question from a variety of approaches: welfare economics; political liberalism; and the “capabilities” approach to well-being.