An investigation into arts funding as a political phenomenon in New Zealand and Great Britain

Abstract

This thesis sets out to provide a critical analysis of arts councils which operate 'at arm's-length' from the state. The arm's-length principle posits that such arts councils are free from government interference in their funding decisions and therefore represent non-political decision-making in the arts. The purpose of this thesis is to determine whether the function of the arts councils of New Zealand and Great Britain can be seen to be political, and if so, to identify the processes by which this occurs. The theoretical framework used proposes that the state has two complementary functions to play. The accumulation function is activity to maintain the principal aspects of the capitalist system including the market economy, market profitability and effective demand. The legitimation function acts to minimise the social costs of capitalist production and maintain continued support for the capitalist system. This thesis demonstrates that sufficient evidence exists in both the New Zealand and British context to support the analysis that the social policies of arts councils fulfil the legitimation function. An investigation of literature regarding the Arts Council of Great Britain shows that its orientation towards 'excellence' in combination with a structure based on the use of incrementalist decision-making, peer-review panels, and ministerial appointed Counsellors, tends to promote artforms favoured by the ruling-class and resist alternative forms of cultural production. In this way the British Arts Council's policies can be seen to promote the hegemony of the ruling-class. The study of the Queen Elizabeth the Second Arts Council of New Zealand through literature, documentation and a series of five interviews with key people from the Council and government bureaucracy, found evidence of both direct and indirect government influence on the Council. According to these findings arts funding is the result of the play between government, the Arts Council, lobby groups and public opinion in the context of the economic, social and political environment. While the requirements of capitalism do not directly dictate the policies of an arts council they do prescribe and restrict them. The extent to which arts councils experience interference and increased controls from central government depends on the requirements of the state in maintaining its accumulation function. Given this analysis, arts funding can be seen to be a political phenomenon in New Zealand and Great Britian.