Abstract
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.
Acknowledgements
This article is the result of part of a project entitled ‘Foreign countries' government accounting management and reform experience’, which was part of the ‘Study of the strategic framework of China's government accounting reform and management’ by the Treasury Department, Ministry of Finance of China, sponsored by the World Bank (January–July 2010). Thanks are due to the Chinese and French ministries of finance and to PMM's two anonymous referees.