Attitudes towards the funding of cultural policy in Spain: an examination of the ideological and political factors

Since the beginning of Spain's transition to democracy in the late 1970s, cultural policy has gone from virtually zero to a policy priority, especially in the country's regional and local governments. Spain's will to achieve a great socio-political transformation and to converge with Western Europe have been two of the drivers behind this trend. However, since the 2000s, three factors have undermined these policies: austerity; regional tensions; the crisis of the model. Thus, cultural politics are threatened by a detachment from High Culture, as well as by cultural populism and the Far Right. This is why our paper analyses support for cultural spending as reflected in CIS (Spanish government agency of sociological research) surveys, which show overwhelming support for such expenditure. However, the factors explaining this support are diverse and are linked to generational, ideological and political factors.

Automated summary

Since the late 1970s, cultural policy in Spain has shifted from being virtually non-existent to a priority, especially at the regional and local level. However, since the 2000s, factors such as austerity, regional tensions, and crisis of the model have undermined these policies, posing threats to cultural politics.