{"id":2729,"date":"2022-04-27T12:13:57","date_gmt":"2022-04-27T19:13:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/?p=2729"},"modified":"2022-04-27T12:14:00","modified_gmt":"2022-04-27T19:14:00","slug":"book-diary-april-27-arts-funding-and-welfarism-merit-goods-who-cares-if-you-listen-and-a-first-look-at-perfectionism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2022\/04\/book-diary-april-27-arts-funding-and-welfarism-merit-goods-who-cares-if-you-listen-and-a-first-look-at-perfectionism\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Diary – April 27 – Arts Funding and Welfarism, Merit Goods, Who Cares if you Listen?, and a first look at Perfectionism…"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"9780140041026:<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

‘I think there can’t be too many pictures and statues and works of art,’ Hyacinth broke out. ‘The more the better, whether people are hungry or not.’ Henry James, The Princess Casamassima<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

This week (and the next few weeks) I have been wrestling with the topic of perfectionism<\/em> in moral theory. It has very important implications for how one might justify public funding for the arts, and might deal a heavy blow against such funding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let’s start with how economists look at the world (yes, typical of an economist to do this).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When economists consider a policy question, they look at the effects on the well-being of individuals. In garden-variety benefit-cost analysis, they will ask whether the gains to those individuals who benefit from a policy outweigh the losses to those who lose out, and will also note whether income and wealth inequalities will be made bigger or smaller. Efficiency and equity, in short. Economists are consequentialists<\/em>, meaning, as you might expect, that policies are judged on their consequences. But they are a particular type of consequentialist: the only consequences that matter are the welfare of individuals. This can be called welfarism<\/em>. Utilitarianism<\/em> is a type of welfarism, that looks to add the sum of well-being across society. Not every economist would subscribe to utilitarianism, but welfarism is standard practice in the field.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This has an implication for arts funding: economists judge a policy of granting funds to artists and\/or arts organizations, or giving “culture passes” to young people, on the basis of the effect on people’s well-being, and nothing but<\/em> the effect on people’s well-being. A view that the support of classical music is important because we are morally obliged to pursue the highest levels of excellence and artistic creation in music regardless of whether people happen to notice is not welcome in this framework. Steven Wall, in his survey in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy<\/a><\/em>, calls such a view nonhumanistic perfectionism<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Does anybody advocate for nonhumantistic perfectionism? Nietzsche is our most famous perfectionist. Milton Babbitt, in his 1958 essay in High Fidelity<\/em>, “Who Cares if you Listen?”<\/a> (reportedly he did not like the title that was given to the piece, but, really, he truly seems not to care if you listen) seems to go there:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I dare suggest that the composer would do himself and his music an immediate and eventual service by total, resolute, and voluntary withdrawal from this public world to one of private performance and electronic media, with its very real possibility of complete elimination of the public and social aspects of musical composition. By so doing, the separation between the domains would be defined beyond any possibility of confusion of categories, and the composer would be free to pursue a private life of professional achievement, as opposed to a public life of unprofessional compromise and exhibitionism.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

And Clive James, in Civilization<\/em> (1928), echoes Hyacinth:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Civilization requires the existence of a leisured class, and a leisured class requires the existence of slaves \u2013 of people, I mean, who give some part of their surplus time and energy to the support of others. If you feel that such inequality is intolerable, have the courage to admit that you can dispense with civilization and that equality, not good, is what you want. Complete human equality is compatible only with complete savagery.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The high arts, civilization, must be pursued regardless of whether the lower classes pay it any mind at all, even if their labour pays the price for it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, we don’t hear arts advocates voice this sort of perfectionism now. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But let’s consider a milder form, a human nature perfectionism<\/em>, as Wall would have it. Here, we have an advocacy for something – let’s stick with classical music as a running example – that enables people to move towards a personal human excellence, and in turn greater true well-being (which may be something more than simple hedonistic pleasure), even if most people do not realise it. Encouraging a love of classical music, and keeping alive a vibrant and ever-evolving form of art, confers benefits on the individual, though they may need to be nudged in this direction by a benevolent government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Would economic analysis allow for this<\/em> to be a factor in an analysis of arts policy? Not typically. In benefit-cost analysis economists take people’s preferences, gauged by how much they are willing to pay for things, as data, and, as they say, De gustibus non est disputandum<\/em>. This doesn’t mean economists can’t find reasons for public funding of the arts, but they don’t usually rely on going against what people say they want right now – I’ll come back to this in a future blog post.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Economics did have a go with a version of human nature perfectionism, with the concept of merit goods<\/em>. Introduced by Richard Musgrave in his Theory of Public Finance<\/em> (1959), he wrote:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

… a case for the satisfaction of merit wants and for interference with consumer sovereignty, narrowly defined, may derive from the role of leadership in a democratic society. While consumer sovereignty is the general rule, situations may arise, within the context of a democratic community, where an informed group is justified in imposing its decision upon others<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

But the concept never caught on in mainstream economics, which, you might think for better or for worse, simply takes what people are willing to pay for, no questions asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, let’s broaden our scope here beyond the econosphere, and consider liberal theory in general. Consider a broad definition of liberalism that holds that individuals have the right to decide for themselves what constitutes a good life, so long as it does not involve restricting the rights of others to do the same. Can a human nature perfectionism find a home in a liberal society? In an essay I’ll eventually write about (I’m setting a lot of future tasks for myself), Ronald Dworkin asks “Can a liberal state support art?<\/a>“. He answers yes, though I’m not sure awfully persuasively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, next week I’ll look at liberal theory old (Kant) and new-ish (Rawls) and others, and see whether there is room there for arts funding based on perfectionist goals…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But now to finish grading.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

‘I think there can’t be too many pictures and statues and works of art,’ Hyacinth broke out. ‘The more the better, whether people are hungry or not.’ Henry James, The Princess Casamassima This week (and the next few weeks) I have been wrestling with the topic of perfectionism in moral theory. It has very important […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2731,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2729","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-issues","8":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/James.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3dIW5-I1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1499,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2014\/09\/local-arts-funding-and-urban-design-responses\/","url_meta":{"origin":2729,"position":0},"title":"Local arts funding and urban design: responses","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"September 8, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"My thanks to those who took the time to comment on my most recent post. As usual - and this is for the good! - discussion went in unexpected directions. One commenter wrote, in response to my line that local government arts funders should respond to local tastes: Should \u201ctaste\u201d\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "issues"","block_context":{"text":"issues","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"we get letters","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/postbox.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/postbox.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/postbox.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/postbox.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/postbox.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/postbox.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3005,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2024\/04\/why-public-funding-for-the-arts-a-personal-view\/","url_meta":{"origin":2729,"position":1},"title":"Why Public Funding for the Arts: A Personal View","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"April 18, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"I\u00a0wrote a book\u00a0looking at how different ways of moral and political theorizing drew different conclusions regarding whether the state should, or should not, subsidize the arts. At the very end of the book I give something of a personal view. There is a review circulating that is terribly confused about\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "issues"","block_context":{"text":"issues","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/image.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3039,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2024\/07\/on-the-florida-arts-funding-cuts-beyond-the-fringe\/","url_meta":{"origin":2729,"position":2},"title":"On the Florida Arts Funding Cuts: Beyond the Fringe","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"July 3, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Last week Florida governor Ron DeSantis vetoed $32 million in arts funding, which in that state is managed and allocated by the Division of Arts and Culture. The\u00a0Miami Herald\u00a0reports: Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday cited \u201csexual\u201d festivals in Orlando and Tampa as the reason he vetoed more than $32 million\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "issues"","block_context":{"text":"issues","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/image.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/image.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/image.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2069,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2016\/07\/the-size-of-the-arts-sector-is-not-a-rationale-for-public-funding-of-the-arts-sector\/","url_meta":{"origin":2729,"position":3},"title":"The size of the arts sector is not a rationale for public funding of the arts sector","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"July 26, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"In yesterday's post, I wrote (as an aside): I see a lot of advocacy that follows the '1.\u00a0the cultural sector is bigger than you thought it was, 2.\u00a0???, 3.\u00a0deserves more public funding'\u00a0model. Conveniently, this morning we get this story\u00a0from The Scotsman on the Edinburgh Festival: Flagship events like the Edinburgh\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "issues"","block_context":{"text":"issues","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"???","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/gnome-300x168.jpeg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1957,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2016\/01\/arts-funding-and-peer-review\/","url_meta":{"origin":2729,"position":4},"title":"Arts funding and peer review","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"January 13, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"At The Scotsman, Euan McColm writes about the controversy surrounding Creative Scotland's grant to artist Ellie Harrison, who will live in Glasgow for a year without leaving, in order to personally document what is known in social science as the 'Glasgow effect', whereby various measures of quality of life are\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "issues"","block_context":{"text":"issues","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"this is starting to have an effect on me","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Merchant_City_Glasgow_016.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Merchant_City_Glasgow_016.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Merchant_City_Glasgow_016.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Merchant_City_Glasgow_016.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Merchant_City_Glasgow_016.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Merchant_City_Glasgow_016.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2864,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2023\/03\/new-rushton-working-paper-on-equality-and-public-funding-for-the-arts\/","url_meta":{"origin":2729,"position":5},"title":"New Rushton Working Paper on Equality and Public Funding for the Arts","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"March 26, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"A short, low-tech paper available for free download here on SSRN. 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