Tony Bennett, Differing diversities - Council of Europe

Transversal study on the theme of cultural policy and cultural diversityethnic, racial or religious bases, although the effects of this have been largely overriddenby the registration, in 1990, of the Movement for Rights and Freedomwhich has since developed into a virtually exclusive vehicle for the politicalmobilisation and representation of Bulgarian Turks. The National Council onEthnic and Demographic Issues was established in 1998 and has played a key rolein developing and co-ordinating a Framework Programme for the equal integrationof the Roma/Gypsies into Bulgarian society.Cultural policy and cultural diversityThe place of cultural diversity in current Bulgarian cultural policies needs to beseen in the light of two overarching imperatives. The first is the pressing need –after the divisions of the 1980s, and the collapse of communism – to restore aviable sense of identity that can recruit broad public support and provide a basisupon which to negotiate the relations between different cultural and ethnic groups.The second is the need to manage the shift toward decentralisation, privatisation,and the introduction of market mechanisms into the production and distribution ofcultural goods and services in place of the previous, strongly centrist and directivestructures for cultural policy development that had been established over theperiod since 1945. There has been notable progress in some sectors here: the privatisationof the media has proceeded apace, with the rapid growth of commercialradio stations and cable television. There are, however, difficulties in a number ofareas: the devolution of responsibilities from the central to the regional, districtand local levels of government remains incomplete; there is relatively little experiencein cultural industry development at the local levels of government; and thekinds of information that are needed for government to assist and regulate theactivities of the private sector and the newly-flourishing non-governmental organisations(NGOs) operating in the cultural sphere have yet to be developed. Withinthis context, the national strategy for cultural policy managed by the Ministry ofCulture embodies a commitment to the freedom of expression for all different culturalgroups and communities as well as to providing information on cultural programmesin the languages of minority ethnic and religious groups. TheDepartment for Regional Cultural Policy has special responsibilities for the promotionof cultural diversity.CanadaMapping diversityAs a colonial settler society, Canada has always been a society of immigration and,as such, there has always been a significant fault-line between Canada’s settlerpopulation – mainly European in the first instance – and its First Peoples. Thisremains a significant aspect of Canada’s diversity, which has become more complexover the post-war period as the major fault-line between the two major groupsof European settlers – those of British origin and those of French origin – hasdeveloped into a major political division over the issue of Quebec separatism. Atthe same time, the changing patterns of immigration into Canada have produced37