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GOVERNMENT AS GUARANTOR OF ARTISTIC FREEDOM? : Public governance of the arts in sweden

Lindqvist, Katja LU orcid (2025) p.371-394
Abstract

The chapter describes and discusses the Nordic welfare state approach to governance of the arts using data from Sweden. It enquires into how the Swedish system for public governance of the arts works, in particular with focus on answering the question of whether public governance of the arts does secure artistic freedom, and if so how. In other words, is Swedish public governance of the arts a benefit or a threat to artistic freedom? In order to answer this question, the concepts of governance and policy are defined and described. Furthermore, three dominant public governance modes in use in advanced democracies will be described and used as a theoretical framework for an analysis of strengths and weaknesses of the specific governance... (More)

The chapter describes and discusses the Nordic welfare state approach to governance of the arts using data from Sweden. It enquires into how the Swedish system for public governance of the arts works, in particular with focus on answering the question of whether public governance of the arts does secure artistic freedom, and if so how. In other words, is Swedish public governance of the arts a benefit or a threat to artistic freedom? In order to answer this question, the concepts of governance and policy are defined and described. Furthermore, three dominant public governance modes in use in advanced democracies will be described and used as a theoretical framework for an analysis of strengths and weaknesses of the specific governance arrangements used in Sweden in the field of the arts. The chapter shows that there is reason for concern as regards artistic freedom in Sweden, partly because of the lack of formal arm’s length distance between political and administrative decisionmakers at subnational level, and partly due to ambiguities in government agency information collection related to application procedures.

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Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
organization
publishing date
type
Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding
publication status
published
subject
host publication
The Routledge Companion to Governance in the Arts World
pages
24 pages
publisher
Taylor and Francis A.S.
external identifiers
  • scopus:105006862966
ISBN
9781032326689
9781040342787
DOI
10.4324/9781003316121-27
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
c00a91f4-917a-4368-99dd-e8e60b775b66
date added to LUP
2025-09-15 15:50:33
date last changed
2025-09-29 17:54:53
@inbook{c00a91f4-917a-4368-99dd-e8e60b775b66,
  abstract     = {{<p>The chapter describes and discusses the Nordic welfare state approach to governance of the arts using data from Sweden. It enquires into how the Swedish system for public governance of the arts works, in particular with focus on answering the question of whether public governance of the arts does secure artistic freedom, and if so how. In other words, is Swedish public governance of the arts a benefit or a threat to artistic freedom? In order to answer this question, the concepts of governance and policy are defined and described. Furthermore, three dominant public governance modes in use in advanced democracies will be described and used as a theoretical framework for an analysis of strengths and weaknesses of the specific governance arrangements used in Sweden in the field of the arts. The chapter shows that there is reason for concern as regards artistic freedom in Sweden, partly because of the lack of formal arm’s length distance between political and administrative decisionmakers at subnational level, and partly due to ambiguities in government agency information collection related to application procedures.</p>}},
  author       = {{Lindqvist, Katja}},
  booktitle    = {{The Routledge Companion to Governance in the Arts World}},
  isbn         = {{9781032326689}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  pages        = {{371--394}},
  publisher    = {{Taylor and Francis A.S.}},
  title        = {{GOVERNMENT AS GUARANTOR OF ARTISTIC FREEDOM? : Public governance of the arts in sweden}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9781003316121-27}},
  doi          = {{10.4324/9781003316121-27}},
  year         = {{2025}},
}