This article proposes a conceptual and methodological systematisation of public institutional relations between a governmental authority and the cultural organisations it supervises, allowing for the identification and characterisation of situations of harmony, tension and ambiguity in the relations between the parties. A taxonomy is proposed for defining these concepts, based on evidence that enables the characterization of each of these relational situations in empirical analysis. We aim to answer: (1) In what ways are situations of alignment and opposition publicly expressed in institutional relations between a governmental ministry and the heads of its supervised organisations? (2) How can we define a public relational manifestation of harmony, tension or ambiguity between these agents? (3) How can we characterise the relations between the Portuguese Ministry of Culture and its subordinate organisations between 2000-2019 and problematize their impacts on cultural management? Whether as a dependent or independent analytical variable, these institutional relations are essential for understanding the political process and public sector governance; as evidenced by literature on organisational autonomy (Bach et al, 2020; Lane, 2020) and public service bargains (Hood & Lodge 2008). The classic Weberian separation between the fields of politics and administration has been countered by an empirical reality that points to a broader comprehension of these agents’ role and interdependent interactions, as rulers and administrators’ preferences are not always aligned (Carboni 2010). In this context, we propose a dynamic understanding of these harmonies and tensions, emphasising the transience and evolution of the (dis)encounters of position between these parties. This article is part of an wider ongoing research programme (author’s doctoral thesis) on the analysis of institutional relations between the Portuguese government's Culture department and the organisations it oversees. The article uses data obtained from a qualitative content analysis of a corpus of approximately 850 articles published in a Portuguese daily newspaper (Público) between 2000 and 2019, selected by predetermined criteria. Two rounds of coding were conducted: the first was based on a literature’s review and a broad understanding of the key concepts; the second resulted in a detailed classification of each of the phenomena observed. Preliminary results show the diversity of forms and intensities in which situations of harmony, tension and ambiguity are manifested in these relations, expressed by each of the parties. The results suggest that ambiguous phenomena need to be considered to properly characterise these relationships and to understand their impacts on cultural management. This innovative system of categorisation compiles, in an unprecedented (although non-comprehensive) way, concrete expressions of the harmonies, tensions and relational ambiguities between a government authority and the organisations that depend on it, proposing criteria to be operationalized in different empirical data sets and governmental sectors. As the empirical analysis of this proposal focused on the Portuguese Ministry of Culture, this article is particularly useful for understanding the cultural sector, which is rarely empirically targeted in the study of political-administrative relations.

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public administration and policy,political-administrative relations,governance,cultural policy,cultural organisations