Germany
In the Federal Republic of Germany, central government, the Länder
and local authorities together form a threefold system of public culture
policy. The political responsibility is ex-ercised by the legislative
bodies at central government and Länder level and the autono-mous
administrative bodies of the local authorities and their culture commissions.
The government authorities (ministries of culture) and local authorities
(culture departments) are responsible for the implementation of culture
policy.
Under the Constitution, the Länder are responsible for fulfilling
the role of the State in the field of culture. German culture policy is
organised federally and decentrally. In addition to central government
and the Länder, local authorities, cities and rural districts have
their own responsibilities for culture in the overall structure of public
responsibilities.
The following table illustrates the division of powers and the cooperation
structure in the field of culture in Germany:
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Culture policy in Germany is guided by the principles of decentralisation,
subsidiarity and plurality. The different levels of political action complement
each other. The Government operates a 'hands-off' approach, although the
public sector does act as an important guar-antor and funder of cultural
activity.
Recent discussions on the privatisation of public services and institutions
have been char-acterised by greater openness to the idea of public-private
partnership models. The local authorities bear the largest share of financing
for culture, followed by the Länder. Because of its limited powers
in this area, central government provides only limited funding.
For more information on German culture:
Kulturportal
Deutschland
Deutsche
Kultur International
The Federal Government
Conference of Ministers of Education
and Culture
National Cultural sites
