French revolution and German circumspection: reforming budgeting and accounting in national governments

Marine Portal (1) , Évelyne Lande (1) , Rowan Jones , Klaus Lüder

1 CEREGE [Poitiers] - Centre de recherche en gestion [EA 1722]

In France in 2001, a revolutionary budgeting and accounting reform of the central government was begun and, in 2006, introduced—it is now almost complete. In 2006, the German federal government began a similarly revolutionary budgeting and accounting reform, but abandoned it in 2010. We identify the similarities in technique between the two countries' reforms but also significant differences. The authors conclude that, notwithstanding the importance of accrual accounting in the French revolution and in the abortive German revolution, the resilience of the traditional budgetary accounting systems is striking.

Mots clés: Accrual accounting; budgeting; France; Germany; national government

Domaines: Gestion et management

Marine Portal, Évelyne Lande, Rowan Jones, Klaus Lüder. French revolution and German circumspection: reforming budgeting and accounting in national governments. Public Money and Management, 2012, 32 (5), pp.357-361. ⟨10.1080/09540962.2012.703421⟩. ⟨hal-02480855⟩