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- Title
FREE SPEECH AND ART SUBSIDIES.
- Authors
Shapiro, Daniel
- Abstract
This article focuses on the U.S. National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). The NEA was established in 1965 by the U.S. Congress which tried to ensure that the funding decisions of NEA would be nonpolitical. NEA selections were to be made on the basis of artistic excellence and reviewed by a peer-review panel. Those who receive NEA grants must find matching grants elsewhere to help ensure that the art had widespread support. Congress left the NEA alone for a while until the period of 1989-1991, when controversial photographs and artwork caused the Congress to direct NEA not to fund certain kinds of art. This controversy raises two questions for the fields of political philosophy and philosophy of law. First, are art subsidies permissible? Second, should Congress violate the moral and constitutional right to free speech if it required that the NEA not fund art that expressed a certain viewpoint or message? This paper argues that either the existence of NEA itself is a violation of the rights to free speech, or if the NEA does not violate the moral and constitutional right to free speech, then it is in principle legitimate for Congress to prevent the NEA from subsidizing art which expresses a certain viewpoint.
- Subjects
UNITED States; NATIONAL Endowment for the Arts; FEDERAL aid to the arts; FREEDOM of speech; UNITED States. Congress
- Publication
Law & Philosophy, 1995, Vol 14, Issue 3/4, p329
- ISSN
0167-5249
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1007/BF01000704