Hidden-Hand Culture: The American System of Cultural Patronage

The basis for understanding public support for the arts in the USA is the absence of any precedent for direct national involvement (Larson 1983). This is not attributable to a simplistic view of American philistinism. Rather, the principles of limited government, hidden-hand economics, and dogmatic individualism constitute an explanatory framework. Furthermore, at least since the Jacksonian era, there has been a demonstrable resistance to any assertion of what would seem to constitute superior judgment. Consequently, the very notion of a public cultural policy would elicit strong objections as being at odds with the norms of democratic equality.