Etatization of the Latvian song festival

Based on Szymon Chodak’s macro-sociological theory of etatization, the article explores the dynamics of the etatization of the Latvian Song Festival across four historiographical periods: Russian Empire, the Republic of Latvia, the USSR, and the restored Republic of Latvia. The findings confirm Chodak’s argument that the increasing intervention of the state in a wide range of socio-economic processes is a general trend in Western civilization, showing that the most complete etatization of the Song Festival is taking place now, under democratic regimes, rather than under totalitarian and authoritarian regimes. For the descriptive analysis, a model of the three production fields (symbolic, practical, economic) of the Song Festival was created, which could be used to conduct more detailed empirical research in the future.