The institutions engaged in artistic or scientific activity are centra

The institutions engaged in artistic or scientific activity are centrally concerned with the maintenance and extension of cultural systems. The growth of government patronage of these areas suggests that facilitation and production of culture has become a major state activity in the United States. The objectives underlying this state intervention are not well understood. The central purpose of this paper is to evaluate the relative strengths of several alternative explanations for the government’s involvement in the production of culture. A second purpose is to suggest the likely impact of government patronage on the physical sciences, social sciences, and arts in America.

Four distinct models for explaining the state’s growing interest in the production of culture can be identified. One model emphasizes the value of patronage for the maintenance of the cultural institutions in question. A second model stresses the utility of the investment for capital accumulation. A third model points toward the value of supporting science and art for the administration of government programs. The fourth model identifies the ideological potential of science and art as a primary reason for government patronage.

Science and art for their own sake. The first model of government patronage is predicated on the structural-functionalist assumption that the government is a relatively neutral instrument for the articulation and pursuit of collective goals in a society with relatively autonomous subsystems. Pure science and art are vital societal subsystems, and the government moves to protect and develop these areas to ensure the continued production of culture for the benefit of all members of society. Thus, the government intervenes directly as the final patron of public goods that would otherwise be unavailable.

Two important corollaries follow from this formulation, which makes it empirically testable. First, the timing of government intervention should primarily be related to economic crises faced by the arts and sciences themselves, not to crises in the political system, economy, or elsewhere. Second, government intervention should generally take the form of protecting the paradigm of the arts and sciences. Specifically, federal funding should be allocated to the most creative artists and organizations, as defined by the relevant artistic community. Similarly, funding should be preferentially bestowed on scientists whose research is making the greatest contribution to the advance of the scientific discipline, regardless of its relevance for outside problems or crises.

1. Which of the following best summarizes the four culture production models mentioned in the passage?

(A) They are based on economic criteria.
(B) They explain why government should support cultural activities.
(C) They argue against government intervention.
(D) They are not well understood.
(E) They argue for a separation of government and the arts.

2. The main purpose of the passage is to

(A) increase appreciation for the arts
(B) provide an ideological basis for artistic funding
(C) explain why government supports cultural activities
(D) argue for more government support of the arts and sciences
(E) demonstrate cultural activities in the United States

3. A corollary of the science and art for government programs is

(A) funding should be provided by government only as a last resort
(B) funding will be geared to projects of value to the government
(C) funding is to be provided only to nongovernmental employees
(D) funding by the government is self-defeating
(E) funding by the government is inflationary

4. A conclusion reached by the author of the passage is that

(A) the arts and sciences have been funded by the government for different reasons.
(B) government is a neutral observer of the arts and sciences.
(C) government intervention in the arts and sciences is declining.
(D) the arts and sciences are not dependent on government funding.
(E) politics and science go together.

5. The idea that government should support the arts and sciences only when the market does not provide enough funds belongs to which school?

(A) “their own sake”
(B) “business application”
(C) “government programs”
(D) “ideological control”
(E) all of the above