Since the foundation in 1959 of the Ministry of Culture, cultural policy in France has enjoyed a profile unparalleled in any other country. French Cultural Policy Debates: A Reader makes available the key contributions to a debate which has not only focused on the precise modes of political intervention in cultural production, but has also provided a forum for the discussion of much wider social and political issues. A substantial introduction provides an overview of French cultural policy since 1959 and also places each reading in its political and cultural context. Through the writings of policy-makers and analysts such as Andre Malraux, Jack Lang and Pierre Bourdieu Catherine Trautman, French Cultural Policy Debates traces the emergence of a distinctive model of cultural action and shows how this was challenged in the wake of 1968 challenged by broader understandings of cultural development. Subsequent readings consider the debates generated in the 1980s by France's promotion of cultural industrial forms, and reveal more recent challenges to the very notion of a national cultural policy associated with the increasing globalization of the market for cultural goods. The texts address a span of domains, ranging from theatre, painting, opera and film to popular music and community arts and shape a more fundamental debate concerning the relations between culture, democracy, the economy, technology and the State.