Context

Having undergone 132 years of French colonization supported by colonial cultural policy shaped at the highest state level[1], Algeria has worked since its independence in 1962, to find and develop the foundations of its cultural identity. Among the sites involved, the restructuring of the cultural sector was a particularly important character.

After the first period that extended from 1962 to 1989, during which the cultural sector was managed according to the socialist model or the Soviet model (the state exclusively defined the means and objectives of Culture) the cultural sector was abandoned during the civil war between 1990 and 2000, after the state has disengaged the sector. This was followed by the period from 2000 to the present, where the state, taking the forces, came back stronger than ever to establish a hegemonic cultural strategy. This strategy has allowed it, in just 10 years to control the sector as a whole to become both the single controller and the only contractor. Since the election of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika for a first term in 1999 and the appointment of the former Minister of Culture Khalida Toumi in 2002, the cultural sector has been significantly restructured to allow the State to exercise an inadequate control over culture in Algeria.

Only $ 64 million in 2003, the budget for culture has increased to $ 314 million in 2014. This dramatic change is due to the financial windfall of oil and gas rents which the country has benefited from in the early 2000s Taken together, the cultural sector has received about $ 2.8 billion between 2003 and 2014. With this windfall helping the Ministry of Culture and public state organizations in charge of the implementation of the government's strategy for culture, they hired a company with cultural legislation and regulation that has indelibly changed the cultural aspect: only 9 texts published in 2002, the number of laws and regulations increased to 76 in 2012. In total, more than 548 basic texts relating to the cultural sector were published between 2002 and 2012[2].

After 12 years as head of the Ministry of Culture, former Minister Khalida Toumi has been replaced by Ms. Nadia Labidi in May 2014. The latter inherited a cultural sector that is at the cross road today: dominated by the state. It can no longer meet the needs of local people because it is too locked to allow citizens to participate in the creation, dissemination, access and distribution of their own cultural expressions.

In this context, the new Minister of Culture seems to have recognized this reality. She had called a few days after taking office, to "the involvement of civil society and the largest number of local artists, without exception in the development of cultural programs[3]." She also felt that it was "entirely possible to open the theatre to the private sector." Again, this discourse explicitly recognizes for the first time the positive potential role of civil society and the private sector in the cultural sector development.

Introduction

While only a few independent and specialized studies in the structure of the cultural sector in Algeria have been conducted over the past decade, very few statistics and "official" analyses have been published by the authorities in charge of culture. This lack of information, coupled with the absence of a national cultural policy has generated a blur that characterizes the cultural sector as a whole: who does what? What are the objectives of culture in Algeria? What are the human and financial resources mobilized? How many Algerian people attending theatres, cinemas, museums? Are all questions that remain without clear answers. This uncertainty is all the more unjustifiable that the Ministry of Culture has significant financial resources, which allow it, if it wishes, to conduct studies and in-depth analysis on the sector in order to address the identified deficiencies.

But to keep this vagueness is also a way to avoid "accountablity" to citizens, particularly in terms of selection criteria and funding of cultural projects. The Court of Auditors, financial jurisdiction primarily responsible for monitoring the legality of public accounts, pinned down on many occasions, the opaque management of certain funds, created through "special accounts" mainly allocated to major cultural events[4]. The Ministry of Culture draws on these accounts as well as in its annual budget defined in the Finance Bill to fund the various institutions and activities under its guardianship. And multiply these "special accounts" in order to indirectly increase its budget; the Minister of Culture would, in recent years, increase the cultural events magnitude. Thus, the Year of Algeria in France in 2003, Alger Capital of Arab Culture in 2007, the Pan African Festival of Algiers in 2009, Tlemcen, Capital of Islamic Culture in 2011 and the celebration of independence in Cinquentenaire 2012, have kept the culture budget at a high level (see section 3.8) to include support of one hundred institutionalized annual festivals[5].

From 2007, the year of the organization of the event "Algiers, capital of Arab culture," the budget for culture in Algeria has increased dramatically. Only $ 38 million in 2005, it reached its historic high of $ 561 million in 2012, a year that coincided with the fiftieth anniversary of independence. In 2014, the budget of culture reached $ 314 million, of which 16% are for the organization of the event Constantine Capital of Arab Culture 2015. For the first time, a budget for a large demonstration was integrated directly in the department's budget and not, as before, poured into a "special account".

That can be read as a strategy to maintain at all costs the budget of the Ministry of Culture at a high level which is not sustainable over the long term, because in case of the absence of big and many events, the budget for culture will be reduced accordingly. Hence the importance of negotiating with the government, the fixed rate of 1% of the state budget is dedicated exclusively to culture, whatever the conditions. In 2014, the budget for culture in Algeria represents 0.5% of the state budget.

• [1] Risler C., 2004, La politique culturelle de la France en Algérie, Ed. L’Harmattan, Paris.
• [2] Kessab A., 2014, Législation et réglementation culturelle en Algérie, Ed. El Mawred El Thaqafy, Le Caire.
• [3] Site du ministère de la Culture. Dernière consultation le 20.01.2015 : http://www.m-culture.gov.dz/mc2/fr/lireact.php?id=101
• [4] « Fonds spéciaux : des milliards détournés ou mal gérés ».  Site TSA (Tout sur l’Algérie), 09.11.2014. Dernière consultation le 20.01.2015. http://www.tsa-algerie.com/2014/11/09/tsa- sest-procure-le-rapport-de-la-cour-des-comptes-fonds-speciaux-des-milliards-detournes-ou-mal-geres/
• [5] Gérés initialement par des associations, le ministère décide par décret de les financer à 100%. En contrepartie, le ministère les met sous sa tutelle. Il nomme le commissaire du festival et participe à l’orientation esthétique et politique de l’évènement.