This book only intends to investigate the experience of some countries, which can be addressed as significant benchmark in the field of local authorities' accounting and reporting. The aim is to provide a critical analysis of case studies from a professional viewpoint - as shown by the background of many authors, who mainly come from the accounting profession. We would like stress the importance of understanding the cultural and technical rationale underlying the approaches and feelings of those who come from other countries. Also, in this perspective, it is crucial to identify the measures adopted to tackle the problems which regularly prove to be approximately the same all over the world. Neglecting what happens abroad - whatever the field in which you operate - is not only an unjustified sign of conceit, but also an option which can hardly lead to a tangible improvement of the competitive ability of a country. Even carrying out deep systemic reform, there is the strong temptation to disregard what happens in the rest or the world, or even worse, to accept a simplified and trivial version of those which is, doing so, misleading. Unfortunately, the attitude to underplay the importance of other countries' experiences - or to judge them wrongly - is often even stronger, when the public administration issues are tackled. Of course, the fact of drawing inspiration from other countries also implies to start from the in-depth knowledge of the context where some reforms originated; the way in which they have been implemented; the cultural environment which has entailed - and possibly allowed - specific choices and which probably do not make them applicable to a country which has different structural characteristics and a different history.

Local Authorities’ Accounting and Financial Reporting. Trends and Techniques in a Multinational Perspective

POZZOLI, STEFANO
2008-01-01

Abstract

This book only intends to investigate the experience of some countries, which can be addressed as significant benchmark in the field of local authorities' accounting and reporting. The aim is to provide a critical analysis of case studies from a professional viewpoint - as shown by the background of many authors, who mainly come from the accounting profession. We would like stress the importance of understanding the cultural and technical rationale underlying the approaches and feelings of those who come from other countries. Also, in this perspective, it is crucial to identify the measures adopted to tackle the problems which regularly prove to be approximately the same all over the world. Neglecting what happens abroad - whatever the field in which you operate - is not only an unjustified sign of conceit, but also an option which can hardly lead to a tangible improvement of the competitive ability of a country. Even carrying out deep systemic reform, there is the strong temptation to disregard what happens in the rest or the world, or even worse, to accept a simplified and trivial version of those which is, doing so, misleading. Unfortunately, the attitude to underplay the importance of other countries' experiences - or to judge them wrongly - is often even stronger, when the public administration issues are tackled. Of course, the fact of drawing inspiration from other countries also implies to start from the in-depth knowledge of the context where some reforms originated; the way in which they have been implemented; the cultural environment which has entailed - and possibly allowed - specific choices and which probably do not make them applicable to a country which has different structural characteristics and a different history.
2008
9788846499530
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11367/20415
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