Cultural policies in a process of change: Some comments on the Czech Republic

Abstract

The fall of the so-called “communist system” in countries East European is one of the most important cultural events of the 20th century, probably the most important one of this century. It has been an economical, social, political and cultural cataclysm. Overcoming it successfully will be a long process since it is not possible to “enter the paradise” overnight. It may seem that the speed of transformations in the East and the well-known crisis of market oriented economy which is a present incipiently recovering do not give us enough tiem to reflect on, for example, phenomena such as Culture and cultural policies, although UNESCO declared this decade World-Wide decade of cultural development (1988-1997). Therefore, I tackle the subject of this article trying –from a point of view of cultural economy—to point out different economic and social aspects of cultural policies in the present changing times. The point of reference is the Czech Republic, on which case I have elaborated a comparison of cultural policies in conditions of market oriented economy.