Allmenn kulturlov i Norge : mellom juss og kulturpolitikk

Abstract

The article discusses the political process in connection with a general law regulating the cultural field in Norway. This particular question will be related to the area of cultural politics and to the development of the central bureaucracy/public administration over the last twenty years. The bill is already under way. The deadline for the hearing was 1 February, and the bill will be passed into law in the course of 2007. We will be discussing dilemmas, justifications and resistance in connection with the legal regulation of the cultural field in general and with the specific law in particular. We ask why this is happening right now, and about necessary political and legal clarifications. One important issue is the distribution of authority between the state and the municipalities with regard to the cultural field. Our conclusion is that a general law regulating the cultural field may in its turn produce a law which will commit the municipal level to a minimum effort in the cultural field, but which will also contain the kind of flexibility that will enable the individual municipality to prioritise in accordance with changing needs among its inhabitants.