Kevin V. Mulcahy

Cultural Policy: Definitions and Theoretical Approaches

ulture, according to literary critic Raymond Williams, is one of the two or three most complicated words in the English language (1977, 76). It is worth noting that the root of the word is from the Latin colere, to till. There is the cultivation of a field as there is the cultivation of intellectual and aesthetic sensibilities; the process of becoming educated, polished, refined; that is, cultured: the state of being civilized. In sum, culture suggests a process for the deliberate and systematic acquisition of an intellectual sensibility. The Oxford English Dictionary first defines culture with reference to tillage. Second, it is the cultivation and refinement of the mind; “the artistic and intellectual side of civilization”; finally, “the distinctive customs, achievements, production, outlooks, etc, of a society or group; the way of life of a society or group.” The latter can be characterized as the “anthropological” sense of culture. The American Heritage Dictionary first defines culture as “the totality of socially transmitted behavior patterns, arts, beliefs, institutions, and all other products of work and thought; the predominant attitudes and behavior that characterize the functioning of a group or organization.” Second, culture is “intellectual and artistic activity and the works produced by it”; a high degree of taste and refinement formed by aesthetic and intellectual training.

The State Arts Agency: An Overview of Cultural Federalism in the United States

his article is a brief summary of the history of state arts councils (SAAs) T in the United States. Although the fifty-six agencies with that title include ones in the six special jurisdictions of the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Guam, and Northern Marianas, the SAA designation is conventional. I organize the discussion into five sections: ( 1) historical background; (2) organizational structure; (3) budget data; (4) intergovernmental relations; and ( 5 ) the future of public culture. My overall finding is that the revision in the relative resources of agencies at the national and subnational levels of government for funding the arts requires a reconfiguration of policymaking roles and responsibilities. In particular, the programmatic elements of a national cultural policy need to be assumed largely at the subnational levels of government. The decline of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is lamentable, but seemingly irreversible. If there is to be a future for public culture in the United States, a post-NEA policymaking paradigm must be constructed.

Entrepreneurship or Cultural Darwinism? Privatization and American Cultural Patronage

The concept of the entrepreneur as an artsadministrator is developed as a person serving as a contractual intermediary,bringing together the government, the private sector, and the public for acultural good. The arts administrator functions as an entrepreneur who mediatesthe funding triad of earned income, philanthropic donations, and governmentsubvention. Using empirical evidence from both American and Australian systems ofpatronage, the role of philanthropy and the perils of privatizations arediscussed, given some uncritical approaches to privatization such as: theuniqueness of philanthropy in the American system of cultural patronage; thelimited potential for increase in Australian philanthropy, calling for themaintenance of all parts of the funding triad; the risk that commercializationmay dictate aesthetic decisions when profit becomes an end in itself; and theinevitability of Cultural Darwinism without public support. The cultural entrepreneur, as an advocate for culture, should function as acultural intermediary, facilitating a dialogue between art and society, artistand public, arts, organizations, and government, artistic production and publicfinance, aesthetics and politics.(CBS)

American national security : a presidential perspective

Part One: The meaning of national security. National security: basic concepts and principles. National security: the external environment. National security: the internal policy process. Part Two: The managmenet of national security policy making. Laying the foundations: the Truman administration and national security policy. The Eisenhower administration: the NSC and policy coordination. National security policy in the Johnson administration: the adviser as counselor. The Nixon administration: the national security adviser as agent. Disunity and disarray in national security policy making: the Carter and Reagan administrations. Part Three: Contemporary national security problems. The lessons of the Iran-Contra affair for national security policy making. National security policy in the post Cold War era: the challenge of the 1990s.

Civic Illiteracy and the American Cultural Heritage

The Closing of the American Mind: How Higher Education Has Failed Democracy and Impoverished the Souls of Todays Students. By Allan Bloom. (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1987. Pp. 392.

Coloniality, Identity and Cultural Policy

18.95 cloth,

Preface: The Social-Democratic Model of Cultural Patronage

7.95 paper.) Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know. By E. D. Hirsch, Jr. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1987. Pp. xi, 250.

The cultural policy of the Counter‐Reformation: the case of St. Peter’s

16.95 cloth,

L’analyse comparative des politiques culturelles infranationales : réflexion sur le cas canadien

4.95 paper.) What Do Our 1 7-Year-Olds Know? A Report on the First National Assessment of History and Literature. By Diane Ravitch and Chester E. Finn, Jr. (New York: Harper and Row, 1987. Pp. ix, 293.

Cajun Louisiana: Culture as a Way of Life

15.95.) American Memory: A Report on the Humanities in the Nations Public Schools. By Lynne V. Cheney. (Washington, DC: National Endowment for the Humanities, 1987. Pp. vi, 29.