A centralised market orientation: the implicit determinants of Finnish cultural policy in 1990–2010

Abstract

This article examines the reactions of Finnish cultural policy to the neoliberal turn in its societal environment. The analysis of cultural policy documents in 1990–2010 concentrates on three particular elements of societal change: the reforms in public management, the reorientations in international relations and the paradigm of immaterial production. It is argued here that besides the mythical democratic pluralism of the Nordic welfare states, cultural policy treats newcomers to the political arena selectively. Consequently, the system, constructed originally for protecting free artistic expression and equal distribution of cultural possibilities, has been in the front line of political market orientation in Finland. The orientation is modelled rhetorically after the ideas of cultural pluralism and economic efficiency; in practice, the fight has been a technocratic one between different notions of governmental responsibilities. This mechanism stresses formal procedures at the expense of ad hoc negotiations, leading to a centralised market orientation.

Keywords:

• state cultural policy
• market orientation
• formal cultural indicators
• cultural policy narrative

Notes

1. A contrasting emphasis is the State Commission for the Arts in 1965, where a group of experts with quite esoteric views, mainly leaders of national arts institutions and national arts organisations, emphasised the intuitive knowledge of a very limited group of experts on the matter of which culture would be good enough to deserve support (CP 1965).

2. In the past two decades, the system of peer-reviewing has come under increasing criticism because of its potentially corporatist and corruptive nature in which money is shared out between ‘cronies’ (e.g. Karisto 2011). A recent consultation document published by the Ministry of Culture and Education as part of the new legislation concerned with the promotion of the arts included a remarkable transfer of decision-making power from the confidential bodies of artists to the official machinery and from ad hoc decisions to permanent indicators (Consultation 2012).

3. In 1992, the power of local government was increased at the expense of the central government by reforming the previous system of ‘ear-marked’ municipal state subsidies for libraries, museums, theatres and orchestras so that local authorities may decide whether to use the ‘lump sum’ for these functions or not.