Annotation
This paper analyses the potential decisions to be made in order to improve the efficiency of archives management (either state or local Government based versions). The conclusion of the paper is that a central, hierarchical management system with territorial units is a better option than a decentralized institutional solution, since the central management could provide the same conditions and unified directions to the professional and functional (budgetary, maintenance and coordination work) staff. However, with the territorial units, the organizations of the archives could even support the local particularities to be achied.
Keywords
public service management, specific field of archives, hierarchical, decentralized
Public Service Management in the cultural sector
In the course of my research I was analysing the rate of the State's involvement during its public service managemental action on the basis of which characterisations were expressed in essays published in science of administration in view of the extreme range, only an essentially acting apparatus and an interventionist government's picture has been emerged. Whether what kind of attitude is necessary on the part of governments within the specific field of archives? Is it sufficient for the government to create the relevant legal environment, institutional background or public service management can be solved on a market basis as well? What kind of instruments, organizational solutions should the State use if it takes care of all its moments from legislation that reflects social needs to the conditions for the provision and use of the public service are verified?
To answer the question it should be briefly characterised that what public services might be provided by the government in the discipline of cultural administration at all. Firstly we should consider the highest level of Hungarian legal basis of the State's activity in the field of cultural management according to which "every Hungarian citizen shall have the right to education".
1)
This declaration legitimises the activities of the government in this regard, authorize it with the deriving tasks of legislation, organization and control, whereby the State provides a legal framework to cultural management's operation and for the enforcement of professional rules.
The authorisation entails constitutional obligation as well, which appears as implementation within an institutionalized framework of guaranteeing the right to culture belonging tot he second-generation rights. What values does the apparat protect? What segments are covered by the concept of culture? In order to answer this question, I call Tylor, the English anthropologist's phrase for help: "Culture...is that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, law, morals, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society (Tylor 1920 [1871]: 1)."
2)
A prominent criteria, the complexity has appeared in his phrase, which can also be demonstrated in the diversity of relevant administrative disciplines taking into account the fact that this includes -non-exhaustive list of reasons- the press (the media), sciences, community culture, or rather the field specializing in the management of public collections. By highlighting the latter, the area under scrutiny has been reached. The term of public collections has been exactly defined in the relevant legal requirements "libraries, archives, museum institutions, image and sound archives owned or maintained by the state, local self-government and national self-government, public bodies and public foundations."
3)
It can be read from the definition that the collection and preservation of cultural goods and "to make the tangible and intangible cultural heritage accessible"
4)
are ensured jointly by institutions operating in separate sectors.
Who is responsible for the performance of the tasks incurred in the field of archival administration?
The archival activities'- of course, measured by the level of development of that age (in ancient times the texts were initially engraved on stone tablets) - right to exist is unquestionable basically from the appearance of literacy, for the protection, continuous enrichment and use of archival material that is a primary source of knowledge of the historical past and essential for the continuous performance of public tasks and the exercise of civil rights, which is part of the nation's cultural heritage.
5)
Our history is accompanied by organizational and professional changes in the development history of archival administration
6)
; in the present study I examine the area from the aspect of organizational theory starting from the regime change. The situation of the economic actors producing archival material and the system of state bodies have also undergone significant reforms from the '90s thus it has become justified to review the relevant legislation developed in the course of the work of the current legislator, but mature for further change, whereas, within the framework of the rule of law, it is essential to develop the highest possible level of regulation in all sectors in connection with the provision of public services. 1995 LXVI. law in public documents, the protection of public archives and private a