Cultural Policy and History of Italy.
Italy is, for lack of a better word, a rather young state with it's origin in the year 1860. The first laws that were past by the state were in the years of 1908 and 1909 and they had to due with the culture of the country as a whole. Since the country is known very much for it's history originating in its own culture, those were the first laws that were past. They guarded the history of the country and its artistic assets located within the region (and rightly so). The maintenance of these historic landmarks and areas was considered to be on the forefront of the agenda regarding cultural policies. The past is something that Italy prides itself on. It is something that they hold dear to their hearts and so does the rest of the world, in more ways than one. Their heritage and tradition has always been the most important part of how they take pride in their country. .
During the early 20th century, under fascist rule was when Italy put in place a department solely in charge of the cultural happenings within the country. This is something that no other country has done before and is something that was quite an interesting decision on the government's part. The department was called the Ministry for Popular Culture. This department dealt with the implications of the cultural society as a whole and the daily happenings having to deal with such issues. Created under a dictatorship, this was something that was not highly regarded by the general public. With this new department came propaganda, censorship and things of that nature. Their understanding and beliefs were not in tune with the heritage and tradition of the country as a whole. They focused on the happenings of the people and their work within the culture, rather than preserving the history of the country and what goes along with that. However, despite the efforts put in by this new department, there were many laws put in place by the government protecting the cultural history and current happenings.