Legislation

Since independence in 1962, Algeria has begun to legislate in the cultural sector to manage existing infrastructure. Overall, three periods have marked the history of law and cultural regulations in Algeria:

First period (1962-1988): Between 1962, which marks the independence of Algeria and 1988 of violent riots that ended socialism to open the door to a multiparty system and to a market economy, the number of laws and regulations relating to the cultural sector was not very important. The texts published in this period were almost all in the direction of socialist cultural policy, characterized by the control of the authorities on the structures and cultural organizations. These texts mainly concerned the rules and modes of organization of public cultural institutions in the field of cinema.

Second period (1988-2002): This second period is marked by the decision of the electoral process in 1991 in a context of economic crisis and a major security crisis, had virtually stopping the cultural legislation and regulations. This was due to the near shutdown of the ministry in charge of culture activities: government, overwhelmed by economic and security crisis, abandoned the cultural sector. It had stopped in 1994 funding public cultural structures to finance only a few small art projects. Faced with this reality, the Algerian National Theatre (TNA), the Oran Regional Theatre (TRO) and the Regional Theatre of Constantine (TRC) have closed to open several years later, in the early 2000s.

Third period (2002-2014): After the economic and security situations have improved, the Ministry of Culture has gained strength in 2002, a year marked by the arrival of Khalida Toumi, Minister of Culture who remained in office until 2013 before giving way to the current Minister of culture Nadia Labidi. Incapacitated with a budget of increasingly significant from 2003, the Ministry of Culture has made the laws and regulations of cultural means to reorganize the sector and implement its strategy. Thus, legislation and regulations densely marked this third period . This choice is motivated by the fact that this time, in addition to the fact that it had published in the official journal of a very large number of critical laws and regulations, she saw major changes take place in the cultural sector, which have significantly changed the cultural and artistic landscape in Algeria.

Legislation and cultural regulations in Algeria (2002-2014):

The period from 2002-2014 is the most important to analyse, in the sense that it represents a break from previous periods, and by the very large number of laws and regulations published and the profound impact they have had operating on the arts and culture sector.

The arrival of the Minister of Culture Khalida Toumi in 2002 was paired with a budget growing evolution of culture that the government has boosted by special envelopes it unlocked to finance large-scale cultural events (Year of Algeria in France, Algiers capital of Arab culture, Pan-African Festival of Algiers, Tlemcen capital of Islamic culture, Fiftieth anniversary of the independence of Algeria, Constantine capital of Arab culture). This windfall has helped launch several projects in the sector (creation of new agencies, organization of festivals, etc.) and the need to accompany a variety of texts supposed to provide a legal and structural framework.

We counted 548 "important" laws and regulations for the cultural sector published between 2002 and 2012[1], but we believe that the actual number exceeds 1200 texts in 2014 , if we take into account other texts including appointments, replacements and termination of personnel functions of the Ministry of Culture and members of boards of cultural organizations, etc.

Of the 548 texts we have counted in this decade, 297[2] are ministerial decrees, ministerial orders are 119, 130[3] decrees, one prescription[4] and one law[5] (see Table 01 below).

It should be noted that only 9 regulations were published in 2002, this number increased to 76 texts in 2011 and 2012. The evolution of this number generally follows the growth trend of the budget of the Ministry of Culture: the more budget, the greater the number of laws and regulations is too. Furthermore, the implementation of these texts has been effective and real in its aspects of management and financing of public institutions but also restrictions over independent initiatives, which strengthened the hegemonic strategy of the Ministry of Culture.

Funding

The cultural sector in Algeria is mainly funded by the state. The private sector contributes only symbolically despite a mobile of fiscal measures largely favouring funding of culture by this sector[7]. The origin of this paradox lies in the weakness of the communication around these measures, but especially in the absence of a culture of sponsorship and patronage.

While the budget devoted to culture was 64.4 million US dollars in 2003, it rose to 313.8 million dollars in 2014, an increase of 387% in just 11 years. The Ministry of Culture in Algeria thus became the richest Ministry of Culture of Africa and the Arab region. This is explained by the increase in the state budget, which was multiplied by 6 between 2003 and 2014, following the swell in oil prices. On closer inspection, the budget share of the state budget culture has hardly changed between 2003 and 2014 (0.6% and 0.5%), except for the years 2009, 2011 and 2012 when it reached the 1% level (see Table 01 below).

(1) Constantine cultural capital of the Arab world (2) Fiftieth Anniversary of Independence | (3) Tlemcen capital of Islamic culture 2012 l (4) Pan-African Festival of Algiers 2009 | (5) Algiers capital of Arab culture.

The budget of the detailed development for 2014 gives a fairly accurate idea of expense items of the Ministry of Culture. Thus, 49% of the budget of the Ministry of Culture is to subsidize the various public cultural institutions, 21.8% is for the organization of cultural and film events (festivals especially) and 15% is allocated as a contribution to finance the event "Constantine capital of Arab culture 2015". Only 0.79% of the department's budget is for cultural and artistic associations, reflecting the hegemonic strategy of state for culture (see Table 02 below).

• [1] Kessab A., 2014, « Législation et réglementation culturelle en Algérie », Ed. El Mawred El Thaqafy, Le Caire
• [2] Un arrêté est une décision exécutoire à portée générale ou individuelle émanant d’un ou plusieurs ministres (arrêté ministériel ou interministériel).
• [3] Un décret est un acte exécutoire à portée générale ou individuelle pris par le Président de la République ou par le Premier ministre qui exerce le pouvoir réglementaire.
• [4] Une ordonnance est une mesure prise par le gouvernement dans des matières relevant normalement du domaine de la loi. Le gouvernement ne peut prendre des ordonnances que s'il y a été habilité par le Parlement.  Assimilées à des règlements, les ordonnances entrent en vigueur dès leur publication. Elles ne prennent toutefois valeur législative qu'après avoir été ratifiées par le Parlement dans un délai fixé.
• [5] Une loi est un texte adopté par le Parlement et promulgué par le Président de la République, soit sur proposition des parlementaires (députés ou sénateurs), soit à partir d'un projet déposé par le gouvernement. Elle est une disposition prise par une délibération du Parlement par opposition au "règlement" qui est émis par une des autorités administratives auxquelles les lois constitutionnelles ont conféré un pouvoir réglementaire.
• [6] Kessab A., 2014, « Législation et réglementation culturelle en Algérie », Ed. El Mawred El Thaqafy, Le Caire.
• [7] Kessab A., 2012. « A propos de l’article de M. Nouri Nesrouch sur la loi relative au sponsoring/mécénat dans le secteur culturel en Algérie ». Publié sur le Site de l’Action Culturelle Algérienne (dernière consultation 20.01.2015) : http://www.alger-culture.com/readarticle.php?article_id=550
• [8] Kessab A., Benslimane D., 2012, “Etude comparative sur certains aspects des politiques culturelles en Algérie, Egypte, Maroc et Tunisie” (actualisé en 2014), El Mawred.