Our essay addresses the way of thinking cultural policy that Augustin Girard was instrumental in working out and managing within the confines of UNESCO. This way of thinking lies behind the strategies of cultural policy of the industrialized countries in the period following the Second World War, which makes it legitimate to talk about a joint philosophy of cultural policy that transcends national borders. Girard’s basic philosophy and approach is that cultural policy needs to create the conditions for a decentralized and pluralistic ‘cultural democracy’ in which the individual can play an active part. Thus, we argue that the motivation and foundation for Girard’s way of thinking cultural policy is based on a democratic diagnosis of the present, which is implicit in his way of thinking and needs to be explicated and developed further. Departing form Girard’s Cultural development: experiences and policies we clarify what Girard’s way of thinking cultural policy involves and imply. Next, we address a distinct impression we have that Girard’s overarching democratic approach has been toned down to the advantage of the “managerial” aspect of his thinking. Our task in this part of the essay is to assess the instrumental aspect of Girard’s way of thinking and the ultimate purposes that motivates this way of thinking. The relation between these two aspects is unsettled in Girard. Thus, we ask whether Girard’s way of thinking isn’t itself a striking expression of the nihilism he combats, in that it furthers the very features of modernity that it wants to remedy, i.e. the progressive degradation of moral and social relation through processes of capitalization and instrumental rationality. The answer is that it is not, provided that his concern for cultural democracy and the development of a democratic culture is not forfeited.