Public Culture in America: A Review of Cultural Policy Debates

This article examines debates about public culture from the late 1980s to the present and identifies thirteen arguments that have been used to justify an investment in public culture: public interest, national security, merit, moral worth, the good life, economic development, politics, education, democracy, American identity, shared symbols, diversity, and innovation. The article then asserts four positions: (1) public culture and democracy are mutually constitutive, (2) elite culture can be detrimental to democracy, (3) the deliberate pursuit of diversity is a democratic endeavor, and (4) culture can bridge social differences. The article closes with a discussion about whether any form of public culture has yet been achieved in America, drawing on the work of Tyler Cowen and Bill Ivey.