Government Investment in Cultural Capital: A Methodology for Comparing Direct Government Support for the Arts in the U.S. and the U.K.

Abstract

In this paper I attempt to redress the lack of comparative cultural policy research between the United States and the United Kingdom. Specifically, I seek to develop and test a methodology of direct government investment in cultural capital. the new methodology will be presented in three parts. in the first part, the relevant literature in comparative cultural policy research is comprehensively reviewed for the strengths and weaknesses of currently available methodologies. in the second part, Throsby's (1995; 1999; 2001) concept of cultural capital is augmented by Austrian capital theory and analogized to the realm of natural capital in order to articulate the policy dimensions of sustainable development in cultural capital. in the third part, three quantitative metrics are then derived from the theoretical work and are empirically applied to assess and compare direct national government support for the arts in the U.S. and the U.K. Preliminary observations are offered in the conclusion.