The Right to Enjoy Cultural Assets

Abstract

The right to cultural enjoyment holds great importance within the framework of open, plural and democratic societies. As is generally agreed, even though the state not only guarantees but also encourages access to cultural goods and cultural heritage, it is not positioned to condition this enjoyment through adopting aesthetic, philosophical or ideological guidelines. Such has often been ignored in the past, especially during the Classical and Enlightenments periods as well as blatantly under the dictatorships that prevailed in parts of the 20th century, for example the National Socialist labelling of degenerate art. However, should democracy, even cultural democratization, prevent the conditioning of any aesthetic, philosophical or ideological nature, it is no less true that the right to cultural enjoyment, protected by public policies, is never limited to guaranteeing access to cultural heritage. It implies providing and raising the conditions for better and more appropriate cultural enjoyment. Furthermore, there is a dynamic aspect to the aforementioned cultural valorization that fosters interventions aimed at qualifying and avoiding degradation as well as those dimensions designed to involve civil society, for example patronage, cooperation and exchange.