Cultural Policy Around the World

The challenges to democratic cultural development outlined above are global, but they manifest in different ways from place to place, depending upon local social and political conditions.

For developing societies, the crucial question has been how to preserve and extend indigenous traditions, which root them strongly in the past and provide their deepest sources of energy and inspiration; and at the same time, to take what's best from the industrialized world without being inundated by it. Most developing societies have been struggling to overcome a long history of cultural colonization -- the fact that their theaters, libraries, and airwaves are dominated by the cultures which colonized them centuries ago. But they want to avoid retreating to mere nostalgia, creating an equally artificial culture which has nothing to say to the real conditions of contemporary life. They want to find the best ways to shape modernization when it comes. For instance, in the developing world, it's often not a question of how to reshape existing broadcasting systems, but how to develop mass media in the first place.

How Is Policy Set?

Many approaches to making cultural policy are being used throughbout the U.S. and around the world. Specific descriptions of many of these appear in the deeper levels of Webster's World of Cultural Policy, which can be accessed through links at the end of this document. Here, we briefly describe the general processes involved in policy-making.

To make truly comprehensive cultural policy, three categories of action are required:

1. processes to define cultural values, goals and priorities;

Introduction to Africa, Government and Politics

African societies today have two levels of government: the indigenous organization, which pertains to local groups, and the national government of the independent nation-states. The relationship between the two levels is complex and has led to serious incompatibilities and conflicts.

It has become usual to classify the multitude of indigenous forms of African government into three main categories, conventionally known as bands, tribes, and kingdoms. Bands are relatively few and are limited to the societies with economies based on hunting and gathering, especially those of the Bushmen of the Kalahari and the foragers of the central African forests. Their economies require a low density of population and, therefore, its wide distribution over large areas, which inhibits permanent or large settlements. These bands are not found in total isolation but are interspersed with culturally different groups with distinct and complementary economies. Essentially, the bands are large kinship groups under the authority of family elders and shamanic ritual leaders.

General Directions of Cultural Policy

The rights and various attempts of the people of Nigeria to develop their culture have been supported by both the civilian and military governments and have been given consideration in the Nigerian Constitution. However, neither the systematized cultural policy, nor the set of main aims of cultural policies within the states have not been presented. Some of the clearly set directions of cultural policies are:

- analysis and understanding of the Nigerian cultural life, cultural values and cultural needs and expectations of people;

Instruments of Cultural Policy

Financing and planning of cultural activities

Functioning of public and semi-public bodies dealing with culture, as well as the main inputs in cultural infrastructure such as building of museums, theaters, establishment of libraries etc. are mainly covered from the federal budget. This also stands for the organization of large events such as national or literary festivals organized by federal or state agencies of culture.

Planning of cultural activities or of the establishment of cultural infrastructure is linked to the budget provisions preparations. It hardly goes beyond an action or project planning. A general development plan of the country may provide for the construction of cultural infrastructure or for major cultural events. The project planning is restricted to either the local level, or, in the case of international cultural cooperation, fully complies with the provisions of the donor organization.

Sectoral Policies

Cultural Heritage

Cultural heritage is widely recognized as the most important input in defining the national and ethnic cultures in Nigeria. Nigeria inherits great cultures of the Benin plateau, but also an impressive body of plastic, music and literary arts. All Nigerian governments, notwithstanding their political backgrounds and developmental orientations, proclaimed their intention to preserve cultural heritage and allow for its full recognition. The National Archives, the National Museum, the National Library and all the existing universities have taken over the task to work on research, restoration and preservation of the cultural heritage. Both federal and a few state agencies working in this field are fully supported from the federal funds.

What Is Cultural Policy?

The rubric "cultural policy" describes, in the aggregate, the values and principles which guide any social entity in cultural affairs.

A policy statement can be simply an individual resolution-- such as "I intend to avoid sexist language in my writing." But most commonly, policies are more complex, summing up an organization's values and decision-making criteria.

Cultural policies are most often made by governments, from school boards to Congress and the White House, but also by many other institutions in the private sector, from corporations to community organizations. Policies provide guideposts for those making decisions and taking actions which affect cultural life.

Historical Roots of Cultural Policy

The ideas which have informed cultural policy come from many sources -- from traditional practices in diverse societies, from philosophers and theoreticians, from accounts of history and utopian speculations.

Courts, churches, legislatures, and patrons have for many centuries made decisions about whether, why and how to support work in the arts and cultural facilities; about the language and religion of a society; and about such issues as proper dress and behavior. Philosophers and historians have had a good deal to say about the conduct of a society with respect to culture. In every society and every period of history, people have made choices about the culture they would build, how to express their aspirations and fears, how to embody their values in rituals and celebrations. But the concept of a special socio-cultural responsibility for democratic governments is a relatively new invention. The idea of cultural policy as such came into currency after World War II.

Modes of Action in Cultural Policy

Generally, government initiatives in explicit cultural policy involve activities in one or more of the following broad areas of concern: preservation, dissemination, creation, research, training, education and animation.

• Preservation includes safeguarding artifacts -- buildings, paintings, costumes, furnishings, musical literature and so forth -- as well as cultural skills and activities -- basket-weaving, shape-note singing, or paper-making.
  

The Instrumentalities of Cultural Policy

In each of these areas of activity, policy-makers have a variety of instrumentalities at their disposal.

• Grants and awards are far and away the most popular methods of implementing cultural policy in the U.S. and some other countries. Arts agencies in the U.S.A. have tended to adopt the instrumentalities of private patronage, particularly the gift of a sum of money to a selected artist or institution.
• Employment and job creation have been used here at certain historical moments, particularly during the Works Progress Adminstration (WPA) of President Franklin Roosevelt's "New Deal" and the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA) President Richard Nixon put into effect. In both these cases, the main intention was to take people off relief rolls and put them to work; someone had the secondary idea of using these job creation programs to employ artists. Artists may also be employed directly to fulfill commissions for works of art, act as agents of cultural preservation or animation, as teachers, or as arts administrators.