Quebec's Culture Policy: Will Increased Autonomy Matter?

Abstract

Nations are differentiated primarily through the unique characteristics of their culture; thus almost by definition, each one has a set of laws, regulations, funding initiatives, and institutions (the complex) that promotes the articulation and expression of its unique national culture. In the words of Raymond Williams: idea of culture is a general reaction to a general and major change in the conditions of our common life. (1) What the state does in this regard constitutes its cultural policy. The raison d'etre of each nation's cultural policy is determined by the values of its culture and the specific components of that policy will have to be in conformity with that raison d'etre. For example, the objective of the cultural policy of the United States has been that of maximizing access in all markets for all forms of expression. Some would argue this is little more than a contemporary application of Bernard Semmel's notion of free trade imperialism. (2) This cultural policy is in stark contrast with that of France during the years of Jack Lang as Minister of Culture, where there was a strong basis for the policy in domestic class politics. (3) Quebec, while not yet a nation state, must be considered to be a nation in that, as a society, it has a culture which is significantly different from those of the rest of North America and of Europe. In this paper I will examine Quebec's cultural policy and consider what specific policy complex would be optimal in terms of allowing Quebec most effectively to realize its objective of articulating, expressing, and promoting its national culture. In the course of doing this we must also take into account some theoretical and policy questions, relating to culture theory and to the economics of culture which arise in the context of this decade. Cultural Policy and Quebec While the two parties which have formed the provincial government in recent years, the Liberal Party and the Parti Quebecois, differ dramatically on some policy issues, the degree to which they are in agreement regarding culture policy is quite striking. The document which governs the culture policy of the present PQ government of Jacques Parizeau is that which was adopted by the previous government of Robert Bourassa and his Minister of Cultural Affairs Liza Frulla-Hebert, La politique culturelle du Quebec: notre culture, notre avenir (hereafter La politique), (4) in 1992. This is the latest in a series of six studies of culture policy which began in 1964 with publication of Le livre blanc de la culture by Pierre Laporte. (5) Examination of the approaches taken and policies recommended in each of these reports would not be germane to this paper, but the fact that seven studies have been conducted over a period of thirty years, by both Liberal and PQ governments, attests to the perceived importance of culture policy to Quebec society and to its being a policy issue with considerable staying power. It must be assumed that culture policy will be a central concern of future governments whether Quebec achieves sovereignty or remains in Canada. The basis for the policies proposed in La politique was the report of the Groupe-conseil sur la politique culturelle du Quebec, Une politique de la culture et des arts, chaired by Roland Arpin, which completed its work the previous year, 1991--the Arpin report. (6) While Quebec policy is presented in La politique, the assumptions made about the situation of Quebec and of its culture and cultural industries in the North American and global contexts which gave rise to those policies are most clearly stated in the Arpin study, and we must begin with an examination of them. Arpin begins by stating three fundamental principles: first, that culture is essential for the life of any society; second, that culture must be made accessible to all of that society's citizens; and third, that the state has the obligation to support and to promote culture to the same degree that it does the society's economic and social dimensions. …