Cultural vouchers as a tool for stimulating cultural consumption and spiritual and moral development of youth and children

In order to stimulate the spiritual and moral development of youth and children in many countries, a relatively new tool was used – a cultural voucher, which is the subject of this study. The purpose of the article is to identify the features of cultural vouchers in different countries, and based on international experience, to find ways of improvement of their use in the Republic of Moldova. To achieve this goal, the following tasks were carried out: a review of international experience in the use of cultural vouchers, a legal analysis of the Moldovan legislation on cultural vouchers and an analysis of the evolution of indicators related to the field of culture, as a rationale for the introduction of cultural vouchers in Moldova. The following research methods were used to realize these tasks: the analysis of legislation, literature review and methods of induction and deduction. The results of the study showed that cultural vouchers in different countries differ in value, the age of its beneficiaries, the range of cultural products and services covered by the voucher, the frequency of payment, and the presence or absence of distribution of payments. In the Republic of Moldova, in recent years, a decline in indicators related to cultural consumption has been revealed, which motivated the introduction of cultural vouchers as a countermeasure against these alarming trends. Since Moldova is just starting to use cultural vouchers, it is necessary to improve the legislation regarding their use.