Amendments introduced to the budget law have given an impetus to the activities for the transition to the normative budget financing of state and municipal institutions. The provisions of the Budget Code of the Russian Federation, stipulating for the subsidies to the institutions to implement public assignments, that are to be calculated with regard to the standard costs, conditioned preparations for relevant changes in the organization of financing subordinate institutions by the federal government bodies.
The subject of the article is an analysis of the changes in the mechanism of fi nancing to performing arts organizations, in the case of theatres. The article considers a theatre funding scheme, proposed by the Russian Ministry of Culture, that is based on the number of purchased tickets (“per spectator” financing). It highlights the issues of its implementation, including those of a technical nature, resulting from signifi cant differences in the theatre halls’ capacity, the need to consider the performance genre differences, heterogeneous audience and the like, which, in general, can be overcome.
An important thing, in the authors’ opinion, is to assess the adequacy of the incentives, shaped by this financial mechanism, to the cultural policy objective. It is shown that the introduction of the “per spectator” financing mechanism will inevitably lead to the commercialization of theatres, which are not just non-profit organizations but also public institutions, and their nonprofit status is twice significant. The conclusion reveals the non-compliance of the innovation with the cultural policy objective and non-profit nature of public theatres.