The British Theatre Guide: "A Fundamental Democratic Deficit"

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Dateline: 10th September, 2004

"A Fundamental Democratic Deficit"

If the Welsh Assembly were to take over the functions of the Arts Council of Wales, it could create a "fundamental democratic deficit", ACW says in its written response to the Assembly's proposals for public service reform which could see numerous currently independent organisations being absorbed into the civil service and therefore under direct Assembly control..

"Any move towards a system in which directly elected politicians become answerable to their assemblies for the decision to finance works of art at odds with prevailing political or public opinion," it says, "will run the danger of compromising the independence of artists to raise such questions. The artist, of course, is no more free than the general citizen from the proper constraints of the law, and is as answerable for acts such as defamation or incitement to racial hatred as anyone else. But such accountability is defined by statute, is exact and is known in advance. A system which created direct political patronage in the absence of any enshrined rights protecting freedom of expression – and in which control might be exercised in ways that were not defined, exact or known – creates a fundamental democratic deficit. All other practical considerations of the impact of integrating public patronage of the arts into Government are of secondary importance to this cardinal issue."

The response returns to the subject of limiting freedom of expression on a number of occasions. In talking about countries (such as Austria, France or Germany, for example) in which there are no intermediary organisations which make policy or distribute grant aid, it says, "freedom of expression is often enshrined in basic law. The economic status of artists also tends to be enshrined in law and artists associations tend to have an enshrined right to consultation or participation in public policy. None of these basic laws exist in the UK."

ACW also points out that its function as a Lottery distributor cannot be taken over by the Assembly without intervention from Westminster, for it is appointed as a distributor of the Secretary of State at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. It further adds that its two grant-awarding functions - direct and Lottery - are thoroughly integrated so as to support one another. Milford Haven's Torch Theatre, for example, which is getting substantial funding to refurbish the building which is in poor condition and revenue funding to enable it to increase its own production output to make it the producing house for mid-Wales, gets its increased grant from two separate Lottery and two separate ACW budgets.

The arts, they argue, are fundamentally non-governmental in character, although they can serve government strategic objectives. The arts and government are both, they believe, best served by retaining an arm’s-length relationship.

Iestyn Davies, Head of Communications at ACW said, “The report outlines the benefit of independence to the arts sector as well as government and highlights the experiences of countries where arts policy and funding come directly from government. It reaffirms the benefit of linking Grant in Aid with Lottery funding and considers ways of ensuring a clear synergy between Ministerial priorities and practical arts policy.”

The full response, in PDF format, can be downloaded from ACW's website. Right click on the link and choose to save the file to your hard disk.

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