Cultural Mandate of Local Governance: Running in Place

Abstract

At present, local governments are unable to fulfil their cultural mandate either in terms of their functionality, or in the context of the required funding, or in terms of the scale and importance of tasks related to the development of culture. The article examines the problem of the ability of local governments to address the cultural agenda: the content of the network of municipal cultural institutions and ensuring the availability of cultural goods for the general population. The actions of the state over the past three decades testify to the implementation in Russia of managerial decisions that are extremely unfriendly to the cultural sphere. Firstly, we are talking about the reform of the budgetary sector, marked by the optimization, unification and commercialization of cultural institutions and a reduction in the number of employees. Secondly, within the framework of the reform of local government, all responsibility for the functioning of the so-called grassroots level of culture: public libraries, cultural and leisure institutions, local museums and art schools was transferred to the municipal level without bringing the required amount of public funding. The situation is aggravated by the accumulated socio-economic problems of municipalities, which reflected in the cultural sphere. A way out of the closed circle is seen in the revision and a clear definition of the area of responsibility of local government bodies in the field of culture and guaranteed public funding.