Phantom Images in Public Sector Accounting Reform: A French Study

La réforme du système de comptabilité publique ou l’importance des “images fantômes”: Le cas de l’Etat français

Mark Christensen and Sébastien Rocher ()
Additional contact information
Mark Christensen: ESSEC Business School
Sébastien Rocher: CEREFIGE - Centre Européen de Recherche en Economie Financière et Gestion des Entreprises - UL - Université de Lorraine

Post-Print from HAL

Abstract: Based on the analysis of the decision to adopt accrual accounting by the French State, this study emphasizes the trajectory of this innovation, from the first debates around this idea in the 1980s to its introduction in the LOLF in 2001. Relying on the Actor-Network-Theory (ANT) framework, this study presents the birth of the need for this public sector reform, the progressive construction of a network of actors supporting it and the controversies raised. This case study shows the importance of phantom images in justifying the reform, leading to the conclusion that beliefs are as important as hard facts. It also highlights how the concrete idea of what would be accrual accounting in France was only defined at the end of the innovation process, when the adoption of accrual accounting was already irreversible.

Keywords: Accrual Accounting; Actor-Network Theory; Phantom Image; Comptabilité d’exercice; Théorie de l’acteur réseau; Image fantôme (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Published in Comptabilité Contrôle Audit / Accounting Auditing Control, 2021, 27 (1), pp.159-187. ⟨10.3917/cca.271.0159⟩

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-03032777

DOI: 10.3917/cca.271.0159

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Post-Print from HAL
Bibliographic data for series maintained by CCSD ().