The State and the Creation of ‘National Culture’: Public Policies Towards Historic Buildings

Whilst there are strong debates about whether and how ‘culture’ can affect politics, the state itself can affect the production of culture. It may develop, identify or promote culture for economic purposes, as ‘cultural industries’ become increasingly large, especially in Europe. Equally, it may engage in policies to create or mould ‘cultural nationalism’, itself highly linked to issues of national identity. The paper will look at public policies towards ‘national heritage’, and in particular one visible and important form, namely ‘historic buildings’. Comprehensive and detailed public policies towards historic buildings have developed, including the definition of such buildings, rules about their upkeep and preservation, and controls over their uses, both for individual buildings and for entire conservation areas. Historic buildings are increasingly numerous and varied, and form part of a large ‘heritage industry’. Often they also form part of the creation of a ‘national past’ for contemporary political purposes. The paper will compare the development of policies in Britain, France and Italy, showing how and why policies have expanded over the past century to offer today a comprehensive regulatory framework. It will analyse which policy makers have developed policies, their political strategies and their choice of policy instruments, using variations in institutions, state development and state traditions across the three countries to explain diverse patterns of policy development.