THE COST OF CULTURE

That cultural activities cannot be considered economically unproductiv e ir well established and commonly acknowledged. Considering this wide spread awareness, the extent to which the state attaches importance in practice to supporting and promoting these activities deserves inquir y. A tolerably reliable yardstick for gauging the state's commitment i s given by the costs it incurs for interventions in the sector of cult ure. In this regard Italy has made good headway in the past thirty yea rs and ir now approaching the average levels in Europe. Nonetheless, t here remain pronounced and worrisome differences with respect to the o ther countries, particularly in education. Falling birth rates and the consequent contraction of the student population have spurred an over all restructuring of the school and university systems, which elsewher e provide qualitatively higher standards of service than in Italy with comparable and at times fewer resources Italy therefore need; to corr ect the functional imbalances of its system, which ir still characteri zed by structural rigidities, redundant and uncoordinated organization al arrangements inefficient use of human resources and ultimately wast e of financial resources If the intent ir to ensure adequate standards of service, the compelling need to restore sound public finances nece ssitates drastic action to eliminate inefficiency and diseconomies in the various segments of the cultural sector.