Contingency model of reforms in public sector accounting

Abstract

[Excerpt] Definition: The “contingency model” (Lüder 1992, 1994, 2002) explains reforms in governmental accounting and financial management systems, resorting to several factors making part of the contextual conditions of those reforms. Also used in an a posteriori perspective, it essentially posits an a priori setting, where several factors combine more or less favorably to determine the likelihood of reforms to come to happen. In particular, the model allows to frame the more or less favorable combination of contextual conditions within one country, to conduct the so-called traditional governmental accounting system to change toward performance and resource accounting and budgeting.

The main underlying assumption is that specific contextual variables determine the primary user orientation of governmental accounting and reporting, which, in turn, determines the... [...]