Although cultural diplomacy has grown in importance in recent years, there is no consensus on its definition. Cultural diplomacy is commonly framed in terms of soft power: the capacity of persuasion and attraction that allows the state to construct hegemony without using coercive methods. In this article, I offer a critical analysis of this theory’s limitations. To shed light on this situation, I provide an historical analysis of cultural diplomacy. Based on this historical analysis and on an extensive desk research, I examine the dominant methodological and conceptual articulation of soft power in cultural diplomacy literature to clarify how the logical framework of soft power favors a specific and restrained conception of these policies, narrowing its understanding and legitimating its economic and political instrumentalization.

Different governments in Europe are advancing corporatist mechanisms to foster a homogenizing and conservative understanding of culture. Illiberal practices framed within these policies include a delegated censorship and several measures based on xenophobic claims. Despite the importance of this phenomenon, the available literature on cultural policies has not adequately addressed it so far. This article proposes a conceptual framework to distinguish these illiberal cultural policies from the ones framed by liberal democracies on one hand and totalitarian regimes on the other end. This conceptual scheme is developed through a qualitative methodology based on a thorough review of the relevant literature currently available, a series of semi-structured interviews with relevant actors and a comparative analysis of the cultural policies developed by the ‘populist radical right’ governments in Poland and Hungary.

The division of cultural policy between different levels of administration and the coordination between them in federal countries is a relatively neglected area of research, even though the cultural sphere always requires a balanced combination of autonomy and governance. A particularly interesting case of this equilibrium arises in Spain; often described as a quasi-federal system, both regarding its model of state and within the sphere of cultural policy. However, we demonstrate that, despite the broadly decentralized development of cultural administration in Spain—a plurinational and multicultural state—different recent judicial and political processes are distorting the quasi-federalism constructed over the past three decades. We also show that there is a growing tendency to recentralize and to promote a single cultural conception of the country.

Toward a South American Model of Cultural Policy? Singularities and Convergences in Uruguay, Paraguay and Chile in the Twenty-First CenturySince the beginnings of research in the field of cultural policy during the eighties, the comparative international dimension has been one of its lines of analysis. This has revealed the diversity of approaches and the existence of national and regional models, differences that have been explained by historical and political restraints. Likewise a tendency to the international diffusion of these models has been diagnosed. In the Latin American case in recent years some compilations of national studies have been produced, but rarely have these studies developed a comparative analysis. In this article, we will respond to the question about the existence of a South American model of cultural policy. Based on the study of three different countries (Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay) we will defend the hypothesis that, although we cannot speak of a model of cultural policy for this part of the continent, we have been able to identify some shared elements and a tendency to convergence that prefigure a regional pattern.Resumen:Desde los inicios del estudio de la política cultural en los años ochenta, la dimensión comparativa internacional ha sido uno de sus ejes de análisis. Esto ha revelado la diversidad de enfoques y la existencia de modelos nacionales y regionales, unas diferencias que han sido explicadas por condicionantes históricos y políticos. Asimismo se ha diagnosticado una tendencia a la difusión internacional de estos modelos. En el caso Latinoamericano, se han realizado en los últimos años algunas compilaciones de estudios nacionales, pero raramente estos estudios abordan la tarea comparativa. En este artículo, intentaremos responder a la pregunta de si existe un modelo sudamericano de política cultural. A partir del estudio de tres países (Chile, Paraguay y Uruguay) defenderemos la hipótesis de que si bien no podemos hablar de un modelo propio del sur del continente y existe una multiplicidad debida a diversas genealogías y al desarrollo de políticas culturales diferenciadas por Estado-nación, si existen algunos condicionantes compartidos y una tendencia hacia la convergencia que prefigura un patrón propio.

Trust in science post-Covid appears to be a complex matter. On the one hand, the COVID-19 pandemic added value to the epistemic trustworthiness of scientific opinion and its potential to drive evidence-based policies, while it also spurred scientific distrust and societal polarization (e.g., vaccines), especially on social media. In this work we sought to understand the ways in which trust in science might be bolstered by adopting a multistakeholder perspective. This objective was achieved by considering stakeholders’ views on (a) how perceived key actors affect trust in science, and (b) what proposed actions can be taken by each actor identified. Data were collected using 16 focus groups and 10 individual interviews across different European contexts with general public (n = 66), journalists (n = 23) and scientists (n = 35), and were analysed using thematic analysis. Regarding how perceived key actors affect trust in science, participants viewed policymakers, media, scientific and social media actors as occupying a dual function (facilitators and hinderers of trust in science), and pointed to the value of multi-actor collaboration. Regarding what actions should be taken for enhancing trust in science, participants indicated the value of enhancing understanding of scientific integrity and practices, through science literacy and science communication, and also pointed to social media platform regulation. Implications stemming from the data are discussed, considering how multiple identified stewards of trust can contribute to an ecosystem of trust.