"Cultural exception", national policies and globalisation: imperatives in democratisation and promotion of contemporary culture

This article examines the doctrine of cultural exception, its crisis in the GATT controversy of 1993 and the consequences for France and Europe. It analyses the diplomatic and public mobilisation in reaction to the event and a semantic drift from use of the term "exception" to that of "diversity". The crisis experienced by the cultural exception is shown as having had a positive throwback in the promotion of contemporary culture and a more vigorous democratisation of European cultural industries, in addition to awareness of the weight of film and audiovisual works in identity and identification. Future strategies for the preservation of cultural diversity are examined in the context of globalisation and technological developments. Among the most fruitful are those which aim to resolve the tensions between globalisation and media, format and content pluralism; welding a common front between those advocating diversity in Europe and other regions in the world.