ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses policy experimentation in Canadian federal arts and cultural policy and programmes. In 2015, experimentation– testing “new approaches to learn what works and what does not work using a rigorous method”– was introduced as a governance tool across the Government of Canada. The Department of Canadian Heritage (PCH) embraced this approach, creating a comprehensive programme of 45 experiments across 29 funding programmes. Based on empirical data from document analysis and original interviews with civil servants in the Department of Canadian Heritage, Privy Council Office, Treasury Board Secretariat, and Innovation, Science, and Economic Development Canada, this chapter analyses the aims and goals of the experiments using the theoretical framework of democratic public policy analysis. The chapter shows that expanding access to arts and cultural funding; reconciliation with Indigenous Canadians; increased dialogue with the arts, cultural, and heritage sectors; and technological and administrative efficiencies were the main aims of experiments in PCH. Though many experiments met the conditions of democratic public policy in their intentions, ultimately there is a fundamental tension between the equality and participation of democratic cultural policy, and the hierarchy and bureaucracy of decision-making processes in public administration.
