CULTURAL POLICY OF UNDEMOCRATIC COUNTRIES NOWADAYS: RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN STATE AND PRIVATE SECTORS

Abstract

The purpose of the article is tackling the hallmarks of the undemocratic regimes in Europe nowadays, mainly focusing on the interaction between state and private sectors in cultural sphere. Although in today’s Europe most countries are regarded as democratic, in some of them still exist political regimes not meeting requirements of democracy – they are the so-called managed democracy regimes. According to the typology of cultural policy provided in 1989 by Hillman- Chartand and MacCaughey, managed democracy regimes integrate elements characteristic to Architect and Engineer cultural policy models. According to these models, state institutions predominate in administration of the cultural sphere. Resources provided by cultural sphere are systematically used for achieving ideological, propaganda and political goals of managed democracy regimes. This process involves not only state institutions but also private actors and NGOs in cultural sphere. In order to gain control over private sector as well the regimes apply diverse strategies of merging state and private sectors (public and professional organisations controlled by the government, financial assignments controlled by the government such as foundations, state budget assignations etc.). As a result, the ideological control and censorship by the state affect both state and private sectors, both actively contributing to achieving political goals and propaganda activities of the regime.