Cultural Values and the Crisis of Legitimacy by John Holden from Demos in the UK

The ‘cultural system’ faces a crisis of legitimacy – a problem that has dogged culture for the last 30 years.  Cultural professionals have focused on satisfying the policy demands of their funders in an attempt to gain the same unquestioning support for culture that exists for health or education. But the truth is that politicians will never be able to give that support until there exists a more broadly based democratic consensus. The question is where will this come from?  In his article Cultural Values and the Crisis of Legitimacy, John Holden looks at why culture needs a democratic mandate from the public.