Indirect Policies: Public Funding for Performing Arts in Italy

The chapter investigates the public funding system for performing arts in Italy, by analyzing the links between its declared aims, the procedures through which it operates, and final decisions concerning the allocation of resources. Following the analytical framework presented in Chapter 15 of the same volume, as a first step the authors look at the internal consistency between the aims of the funding policy and the formal procedures put in place to evaluate and select grant beneficiaries (Section 2). The third paragraph focuses on the process of administering the law, which reveals both the organizational routines and the informal procedures that play a role in the decision-making process leading to the allocation of resources. Next, in the fourth paragraph the authors discuss the consistency (or lack of consistency) between the aims of the policy and actual funding decisions. Lastly, the authors provide more general remarks on the rationale of the assessment processes.