Czech Republic/ 2. General objectives and principles of cultural policy  

2.1 Main features of the current cultural policy model

The starting point of the National Cultural Policy was the formulation of a so-called vision of the national cultural policy, i.e. of what role culture should play in society to fully use its often neglected potential and what is the role of the state. "Four objectives of cultural policy" were articulated and "tasks and measures" of a legislative and non-legislative nature were defined. The tasks outlined in the National Cultural Policy are organised according to individual objectives and listed with a short clarification and demands for coordination and cooperation with other institutions of public administration (on both horizontal and vertical levels).

The National Cultural Policy ends with a supplement which contains an overview of the competence of the Ministry of Culture (MC) and other bodies of public administration, and an overview of other concept documents in the department and an evaluation of their performance. The government pledges a "gradual increase of the share of the state budget expenditure for culture to reach 1% of the state budget". Fulfilment of this obligation will require more co-operation by the Ministry with other ministries and regional and local authorities in the completion of specific tasks / measures in the National Cultural Policy.

Cultural policy documents were formulated on basic principles, programme theses and medium-term concepts of cultural support – see also chapter 1. The most comprehensive document was Cultural Policy in the CR from 2001 by Pavel Dostál, the then Minister of Culture. This cultural policy defined the objectives of the state in the field of culture until 2005, articulated at the time of the establishment of a new regional system, the transfer of state administration to local administration and decentralisation in the field of culture. This fact is reflected in the whole text of the document. Cultural Policy in the CR, in fact, preceded the National Cultural Policy of the CR 2009-2014 and this is the reason why its evaluation was a part of the new document. Cultural Policy from 2001 is evaluated as positive because it considers the concept of cultural rights and cultural plurality to be essential, it favours cultural heritage and its position in the cultural life of society, and it promotes the maintenance and expansion (in some areas) of the offer of cultural opportunities, services etc. Problems that people were not able to sufficiently solve or name are seen as a negative feature. These are, for instance, the lack of criteria for evaluation of fulfilling programme objectives, the length of the document that was influenced by a professional division of culture or the absence of solutions to problems drawn from the departmental division of competence of public affairs administration and no cooperation between ministries and offices. These negative comments were taken into consideration during the process of preparation of the new National Cultural Policy and efforts were made to resolve them in the new text.

The current National Cultural Policy is more interventional in this sense and it supports "culture as a sector that can play an essential role in the development of Czech society in future and a sector where economic, environmental and social development of the state is supported".

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