Geographical distribution of cultural projects funded by Rouanet Law

Abstract

The Rouanet Law is one of the primary sources of cultural funding in Brazil, allowing taxpayers to decide which cultural projects to support, which theoretically could represent a way to democratize culture in the country. However, this business prerogative also raises questions about the concentration of resources in specific regions and cultural productions, reflecting the interests of private capital. The aim of this article was to investigate whether the Rouanet Law represents an instrument for democratization in the production and consumption of culture, especially in terms of geographic distribution of resources. Based on a quantitative approach, a description of the geographic distribution of resources was carried out and a comparative analysis was performed among the groups of municipalities that had and did not have projects with Rouanet Law fundraising, using both the Kolmogorov-Smirnov and Wilcoxon Mann-Whitney test. As a result, it can be said that the existence of concentration of resources in the Southeast region. Based on the comparative analysis it was noticed that Rouanet Law resources can be found especially in municipalities with larger populations and higher Gross Domestic Product. As a conclusion, it can be said that in its functioning form and its historical concentration, the Rouanet Law represents an instrument with difficulties in democratizing resources in geographic terms.  It is thus an instrument more focused on private market interests than on public ones.

Keywords: Cultural Policies. Culture. Cultural funds. Tax Incentive.