Articoli taggati con ‘Ministerial Organization’
The Ministry Organization after the introduction of the recent reform
The law number 5 of 29 January 1975 instituted the Ministero per I Beni e le Attività Culturali e Ambientali[2]. Its original tasks were related to the conservation and valorization of artistic heritage and natural beauties. In 1998, the denomination of the Ministry has been changed in Ministero per I Beni e le Attività Cultural[3]i. In 2013, its denomination changed again in Ministero dei beni e delle attività culturali e del Turismo[4] and once again, in 2018, with D.L.[5] 12 July 2018 entered into force on 13 July 2018, the Ministry came back to its previous denomination, with the transfer of the touristic competence to the Ministero delle politiche agricole, alimentari, forestali[6] This intervention is just one of the latest provisions with which, since 2004 (year of the entry into force of the Codice dei Beni Culturali), the legislator started a significative re-organization of the Ministry. Such intervention deals with both the need to adapt the Ministry to the overall provisions adopted in Italy in terms of spending review, and also with the widespread need of redesign the functional and structural organization of the Ministry in order to solve its main disfunctions and deficiencies. The MIBACT, indeed, was characterized by a substantial structural disorganization, an insufficient organigramme and the overlapping of hierarchical lines between the central and peripherical administration. These weaknesses hindered the development of proper investment and resource allocation policies, preventing an efficient management of cultural heritage. The Reform has been thus realized in order to solve the cruxes that were indicated as the main causes of a substantial inadequacy of the Ministry in interpreting and acting coherently with the Article n. 9 of the Italian Constitution referring to the safeguarding and the development of cultural heritage and of the landscape. Therefore, the reform introduced a series of legal instruments that succeeded in sparking several debates in these last 4 years, as also demonstrated by the number of legal provisions adopted in order to update and correct the Reform contents.
Cultural Heritage between administrative organization and non-for-profit initiative
Italian Cultural Heritage is worldwide acknowledged. Artworks, Archaeological Sites, Museums and even whole cities are by now part of the collective imaginary. In spite of this, there are several criticalities characterizing Italian Cultural Heritage. Most of them are the results of an anachronistic interpretation of the role that Cultural Heritage could play in our daily lives. Following this interpretation, Cultural Heritage should not be associated with (direct or indirect) private intervention because private intervention is only targeted to a “profit” and the “profit” is a great enemy for the public interest. Regardless of how unreasonable it may sound, this has been, for long, the unexpressed belief of many Italian Cultural Operators and decision makers. This interpretation led several consequences that could be summarized in an almost completely public management of Cultural Heritage, performed regardless to the results of the activity run by the public administration. Fortunately, in recent years the “cultural establishment” acknowledged the need for a change that was widespread invoked by cultural practitioner and civil society. Obviously, this “switch” is also the result of the substantial evolution that has characterized the Cultural Heritage Management globally as well as the transition from an industrial-led economy to a knowledge-led economy. The main effects of this change are in everyone’s eyes: never in history as today, museums are, in many countries, the living center of the society. Cultural Heritage and Activities are at the very heart of urban development and, most of all, it has been finally acknowledged that Cultural Heritage and Activities could be one of the key economic sectors for the development of entire regions or countries.
