Cultural Diversity Cultural Policy Aims

Cultural Diversity

Cultural policy aims at the advancement of cultural diversity and cultural democracy. As Adams and Goldbard (1987) note, there is a strong need for the development of an effective cultural policy in the United States so as to balance the negative and discriminatory effects that the policy practiced by the government has produced throughout history.

Through the encouragement of culture in all its forms, incorporating both commercial culture as promoted by the media and the nonprofit realm of the high or traditional arts, a democratization of culture can be achieved. There is evidently no one single culture in the United States, but an extraordinary variety of subcultures that have the right to be expressed and defined by their members. In this context, Adams and Goldbard (1987) remark that there is a "right to culture," that should be exercised freely by all people. The main goal of the development of a cultural policy is "to stimulate active participation in community life in all its forms, including political life" (Adams and Goldbard 1987) Thus, through cultural expression people can be socially and politically active. The principal purpose of the movement is therefore the achievement of cultural dynamism, through which diversity, participation in the community life and freedom of belief and expression will be secured as main values of the American civilization. Cultural policy is therefore an effective way to militate for democracy and diversity, and to escape from the stasis that the governmental politics or the marketplace may impose on the individuals. In this view, it is essential that there be public funds and public spaces allotted for the practice of all the arts, such as performance rooms freely available to the public, or any other materials that may be needed by the artists. Adams and Goldbard (1987) emphasize therefore that the main aim of developing a cultural policy is to "promote diversity where government, market forces, and other powerful interests have discouraged it." Cultural democracy is therefore an effective way promoting social and political democracy at the same time, and ensuring the permanence of freedom against the main powers in the state that may sometimes follow different interests. In this respect, it is also necessary that those values that are not considered by the commercial market be promoted. For instance, the artists and the people who have a background of cultural education should be incorporated in social activities and be given different occupations in society that would make the most of their abilities. Cultural democracy can also be a way to counteract unemployment as a negative effect of the dominating marketplace. It would be ideal for cabinets to exist in the State Department so as to ensure the stimulation and the encouragement of cultural democracy. An essential part of this program should also be constituted by the forwarding of multicultural education, with an emphasis on the role of educational environments in promoting cultural pluralism, mutual awareness, communication and cooperation between the different subcultures extant in the country. The focus of the entire process is therefore on the decentralization of authority, so as to allow for every subculture to have its own, individual voice in the state and to be able to express itself. Thus, to achieve the goals set by cultural democracy, one of the most important things to be taken into consideration would be to monitor the way in which certain social or political factors can affect the cultural life of a community, sometimes leaving indelible marks. It is crucial to understand and value the role that each subculture has in the structure of the human communities.