Italy's Undefined Cultural Policy: The Risks of an All-Inclusive Approach

The Italian Civil Code lacks a precise definition of culture, a deliberate choice rooted in the Constitution to protect cultural freedom from state absolutism. This open-endedness, while safeguarding independence, has led to institutional paralysis: if everything can be culture, the Ministry of Culture—one of Italy's poorest ministries—cannot effectively support archaeology, museums, heritage, contemporary art, design, archives, libraries, theaters, cinema, and tourism simultaneously. The author, Stefano Monti, argues that this vagueness fosters intellectual laziness and political inability to prioritize, resulting in scattered funding that satisfies no one. Drawing on Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 and Truffaut's film adaptation, he recalls a time when culture was politically charged and resistant to a memoryless world. Today, the expansion of the concept has created a stasis where potential never becomes power. Monti proposes defining a shared idea of culture that enables concrete public-private cooperation, involving not only businesses but individual citizens. Culture must reclaim vital spaces—hospitals, schools, post offices, bars, open areas—but through shared logic and sustainable financing, not as isolated actions. Selection is necessary: not everything can be funded. The goal is concrete improvement of the country, balancing dreams with practical steps.