The single-chamber Parliament does legislation. In addition to its role in preparing laws, the Committee for Culture and Press also fulfils supervisory functions by occasionally putting various issues related to culture on its agenda. Overall, however, since spring 2010 when Fidesz gained 2/3 of parliamentary seats, the Parliament and its Committees have limited autonomy, and reflect the will of the government or Fidesz, which is dominated by its leader, the Prime Minister.
The Ministry of Culture and Innovation (since 2022) is responsible for government science policy, science policy coordination, vocational training, higher education, family policy, children and youth policy, culture, cultural diplomacy and Hungarian cultural institutions abroad, and adult education. It is important to note however, that public education, as a problematic policy area remained under the supervision of the Ministry of Inner Affairs. Instead of full-range education affairs, family, children and youth policy is paired with culture under the umbrella of the Ministry of Culture and Innovation. In the ministry, there is a separate State secretariat responsible for culture.
There are also some government commissioners with ministerial rank directly under the Prime Minister, with temporary/specific responsibilities, who are responsible for cultural tasks. Currently these are:
- Government Commissioner responsible for certain tasks relating to government investments in cultural heritage sites: the Buda Castle District, the Citadel at the top of Gellért Hill and the Visegrád Monument Complex.
- Government Commissioner for the Development of the Hungarian National Cinematographic Industry.
- Government Commissioner responsible for the preparation and implementation of the Hungarian programmes of the Hungarian-Turkish Year of Science and Innovation.
The Ministry of Construction and Transport is responsible for the protection of cultural heritage. The tasks relating to the protection of monuments, world heritage sites and archaeological sites, i.e. immovable cultural heritage, are carried out by the Deputy State Secretariat for Architecture and Monument Protection within the State Secretariat for Architecture. Within the State Secretariat for Architecture, the Department for Cultural Heritage is responsible for the protection of artefacts and works of art, i.e. movable cultural property. This ministry also supervises the National Castle Programme.
In the Ministry for Economic Affairs a ministerial commissioner oversees the creative industry.
It is not an easy task to get information about the structure of cultural government. The respective ministries appear as chapters of the common government web portal. Apart from news, the top official’s introduction, and a contact list of subordinate institutions the sites do not contain further information about policies, plans and statistics. Decisions and new pieces of legislation are presented as news items but are not stored in a structured fashion. A separate service portal displays official communication and management issues. The official government web portal is only in Hungarian, English version is not available. Clicking on the icon of ‘English version’ takes the reader to abouthungary.hu, which is a completely different website presenting the achievements of the government.
The National Cultural Fund is a semi-autonomous institution since 1993 and is in charge of financing projects. The Fund is chaired by the Minister of Culture and Innovation. The Vice-President of the Fund is appointed by the Minister, after consulting the President of the Hungarian Academy of Arts (MMA), for a maximum term of four years. In order to achieve the objectives of the Fund, a National Cultural Fund Committee is established by the Minister. One third of the members of the Committee are appointed by the Minister on his or her own authority, one third by the MMA and one third based on proposals from the professional organisations concerned. The Minister, with the participation of the MMA, also sets up permanent colleges of experts in the field of the arts and other cultural fields to use the resources of the Fund.
The implementation of the state cultural strategy is the task of the Petőfi Cultural Agency, owned by a public interest trust (Foundation for Hungarian Culture, founded in 2021). The agency owns significant real estate assets and coordinates and finances several cultural institutions. The mission of the Agency is: “to ensure access to Hungarian culture. The aim of the Agency is to convert Hungarians from being consumers of culture to becoming bearers of culture. To this end, it emphasises the community-building function of culture.” Various cultural brands of the agency include among others:
- kultura.hu, the main brand of the Petőfi Cultural Agency. It is an online cultural portal that presents the cultural values of the whole of Hungary in the fields of literature, music, film, theatre, visual arts and pop culture.
- HOTS (Hungarian Oncoming Tunes) is to promote Hungarian productions in the international popular music market
- Carpathian Basin Folk Network’s aim is to present, promote and incorporate the useful knowledge of folk traditions into daily practice.
- The mission of Fairy Tale Centrum is the promotion of contemporary children’s books and literature in Hungarian and the education of reading.
Unlike the National Cultural Fund, Petőfi Cultural Agency distributes public grant money directly, without professional boards of trustees.
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