La política cultural de la Diputación de Barcelona. La influencia del contexto político institucional y de la articulación entre administraciones en el desarrollo de un modelo singular de cooperación cultural

Abstract

How can we understand that a public administration which at the beginning of the transition to democracy seemed certain to disappear has become, over the last thirty years, a central player for cultural policy in Catalonia? No doubt its strong commitment to culture and its focus on providing services to municipalities from cultural facilities networks would provide the keys to success. However, this article argues that the cultural policy of the Diputación de Barcelona (DIBA), should be understood primarily from the influence of institutional policy framework and the distribution of political power which characterized Catalonia for thirty years and in the troubled articulation of government in relation to culture. An area which, as discussed, must be analyzed as a system of relations in which the institutional players cooperate or compete to define goals and establish relationship patterns in a sector of public action which has become progressively more complex and more relevant for socioeconomic development and the legitimacy of government. This analytical framework enables us to understand the strategic commitment of the DIBA and the reasons that DIBA is considered both a model to emulate and a unique case in cultural policy.