Articlegreen2009

Accrual Accounting and the Australian Public Sector – A Legitimation Explanation

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Public Policy and Administration Research Accounting Theory and Financial Reporting Accounting and Organizational Management

Abstract

The move from the cash basis to the accrual basis of accounting in the Australian PublicSector (APS) was a key element of the New Public Management (NPM) reform programand an event of historical significance. The aim of this paper is to identify key events inthis transition and to analyse them through the theoretical lens of Habermas' (1976)theory of legitimation. Key elements of the literature concerning accrual accounting in theAPS are reviewed, together with a discussion of the relevance of Habermas (1976) to thisstudy. These critical historical events are then analysed according Habermas (1976). Thecentral argument expressed within this paper is that accrual accounting can be seen to bea device used by different levels of government in the APS in an attempted to combat thetendencies for economic, rationality and legitimacy difficulties that are commensuratewith welfare state societies such as Australia.

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References

1987Accounting and the construction of the governable person 1996Critical and interpretive histories: insights into accounting’s present and future through its past 1988Accounting as reality construction: Towards a new epistemology for accounting practice 1998Application of Accrual Accounting in the Australian Public Sector – Rhetoric or Reality 2003What counts as “theory” in qualitative management and accounting research? Introducing five levels of theorizing 1987The role of annual reports in gender and class contradictions at general motors: 1917–1976 1991The new accounting history: An introduction 2003Social and environmental reporting at the VRA: institutionalised legitimacy or legitimation crisis?

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