IJASOS- International E-journal of Advances in Social Sciences

Abstract

The objective of the study is to highlight the action plan of Spain in order
to further promote its cultural sector after the establishment of a democratic
regime which followed Franco's death in 1975. Spain intended to prepare a
comprehensive cultural plan with clear objectives and determine the means for
achieving it. We focus on the decisive initiative of the establishment of the
Cervantes Institute and discuss sectors of its action as well as how Spain expanded
and exploited the strong potential of Cervantes Institute. Our aim is to
investigate whether Spain,
having started a new chapter in its political history, exploited the power of
culture and implemented a new well-structured and active cultural strategy.

The Cervantes Institute was initially designed with an aim to map
and accurately record the state of the Spanish language all over the world, to
create access paths to native Spanish population in different countries and to
connect with them gaining their alliance and support. The essence and work of
the Cervantes Institute was certainly multidimensional and complex and was
strongly based on the cultural strength of the Spanish language which formed an
international, dynamic connection channel. However, there were several major
organizational inefficiencies and drawbacks which the Cervantes Institute
should overcome. After all, the successful implementation of the cultural
policy incarnated by the Cervantes Institute was an important bet not only for
the Institute but for the entire Spain, as well.

In this context, we present and analyze in detail how Spain designed and implemented a renovated
cultural policy highlighting the crucial role of the Cervantes Institute and
further discuss whether Spain
eventually managed to achieve a leading role at an international level.