STATE SUBSIDY TO PRIVATE THEATERS IN TURKEY: AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS

The debates about the role of governments or states to increase the production, interest and demand for culture and art have been getting important. Subsidies to private theatres, as an art form which is produced and subsidized by governments in countries like Turkey, are important for the development of cultural sector which is already important and will be more important in the future. This paper makes an overall assessment of government subsidies to private theatre in the 2000s. Turkish State Theatres (DT) and private theaters were analyzed comparatively in terms of number of plays, performances, and trends in the audience. In order to determine the factors that affect the amount of subsidies, a regression analysis is conducted by using the data on the subsidies provided by the General Directorate of Fine Arts to private theaters. As a result of the analysis, it was concluded that although private theaters increased both the audience and the number of performances proportionally, they could not increase their share of subsidy from the state.