The democratisation of culture in France in the nineteenth & twentieth centuries: an obsolete ambition?

Abstract

For generations of cultural administrators and players, extending the benefits of culture to the wider population, enabling the majority to access and be involved in cultural life, has been a moral and political priority; not only for the purposes of enjoyment but because the imparting of Enlightenment values, the acquisition of knowledge, the sharing of artistic creation and emotion and the transmission of cultural heritage have all been considered in this country as an integral part of both republican and democratic undertakings. Democratisation has been the guiding principle, both explicitly and implicitly, of a major part of French cultural policy over the last few decades, the primary reason for public involvement in cultural matters and the ultimate sign of the success or failure of all cultural policies. What have been the manifold faces of this ambition, what forms has it taken throughout the various eras and in what forms does it survive today? These are questions which this article seeks to address.

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