**1.2 A glance on cultural funding**

The power of cultural heritage in enhancing social cohesion, unification and promotion of national identity is undeniable, as well as it is the force to strengthen *Public Governance and Cultural Heritage: Exploring the Links between Culture and Social… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.90793*

**Figure 4.** *Sucevița monastery, in Romania.*

the population's trust towards national identity. However, it is interesting to take a glance in time on the governments' measures [12] to support the cultural sector [8] and use its potential in the social sphere (**Figure 5**).

The financing of the cultural sector has been achieved over time from different sources, while the government's input was more or less significant. Alongside public funding, the cult of sponsorship and donations/maecenates represents an active source of income with old origins for sustaining culture heritage.

The concept of Maecenas, known today as sponsorship, derives from the name of Gaius Cilnius Maecenas, a former Roman statesman who lived in the first century before Christ and whose name remained immortal in history for his merits of protector of arts, literature, and science [17]. Thus, although the maecenate/sponsorship has its origins in sustaining culture, nowadays the meaning and destinations of sponsorship have become much wider, so we can say that the cultural sector "competes" for these sources of financing with other sectors of the economy.

**Figure 5.** *The National Village Museum "Dimitrie Guști," in Bucharest, Romania.*

over Europe and share it with libraries, archives and museums. The contribution of such initiative is of uttermost importance for education, research and recreative

The power of cultural heritage in enhancing social cohesion, unification and promotion of national identity is undeniable, as well as it is the force to strengthen

activities [3].

**294**

**Figure 3.**

**Figure 2.**

*Heritage*

**1.2 A glance on cultural funding**

*Sarmizegetusa Regia, the pagan Dacian temple, in Hunedoara, Romania.*

*The map of awarded European heritage labels. Source: European Commission.*

Private funding/sponsorship has known different dimensions over time, so some states encourage and hold complex legal leverage in this direction compared to others. The succession of political regimes and the degree of economic development seem to have deep roots in this regard.

During communism, the interest of the government for culture has known both favorable and foul times. The public identity was shaped according to the interests of the parties in power, and the works of art were preserved or destroyed [1] according to the personal acceptance of rulers. On the one hand, appreciated works of art considered valuable for the party were preserved and exposed in museums and in personal collections. On the other hand, the period produced losses and destruction of those cultural elements considered dangerous by the party.

After 1989, after the communist period ended, many central and eastern European governments reformed the budgetary allocations by diminishing the funds for culture to the favor of other destinations. The governance interest focused predominantly on supporting other budgetary segments, leaving the financial support for cultural heritage mostly in the care of the private sector. Public/private partnerships have begun to develop with the aim to sustain the cultural sphere. Countries like Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, and Slovenia have adopted regulations granting tax facilities to promote the private support of the cultural sector.

In the Western European side, the cult of donations/maecenas and sponsorship to support culture is much more developed. In Britain, for example, most of the museums are constituted as Charities (a legal form suitable for encouraging donations) [18]. Also, in countries like Denmark, Italy, France, and Spain, government initiatives aim to foster the development of a tradition in sponsorship; thus, the banks became an active sponsor of regional cultural spending.

**2. Knowledge and cultural heritage**

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.90793*

*Rosia Montana mining landscape, in Transylvania, Romania.*

**Figure 6.**

**Figure 7.**

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*and Archeological of Constanta.*

and shapes the minds of future generations (**Figure 7**).

calculated on the basis of the same defining principles.

Cultural heritage represents a particular dimension in the life of a community. It sums up the wisdom of the past [11], gives confidence and recognition of history,

*Public Governance and Cultural Heritage: Exploring the Links between Culture and Social…*

Research in cultural statistics has proved to be a real challenge. Limitations like the scarce number of statistical data and the usage of different reference points for reporting create serious difficulties in analyzing similar data between countries over a longer period of time. Heritage conservation projects are instrumented differently according to the governments' perception [20], so the reported indicators are not

For many, culture is associated with arts and entertainment. The potential that culture has to support the economy, primarily because of the boost it may incur on

*Old Neolithic statues "the Thinker of Hamangia" and "the Sitting Woman," in the Museum of National History*
