This article represents an attempt to investigate a key concept for cultural policy – intrinsic value (“egenverdi”). The basic aim is to combine conceptual analysis with conceptual history, in order to analyze in what way intrinsic value is and has been used as a concept in Norwegian cultural policy. To do this, I make use of three kinds of documents: contemporary political programs, historical political programs, and government white papers (“Stortingsmeldinger”) on culture. Intrinsic value is analyzed as a concept that is self-referential, and a concluding claim of the article is that the use of the concept limits the general political discourse on cultural policy.
