ABSTRACT
Accounting theory and practice seem to be worlds apart from debates about freedom. Accounting seems to be socially and politically neutral in its objectives, seeking only to represent economic events as accurately as possible. Its occasional lapses and biases – ‘creative accounting’ as it has come to be called – may pose problems for specific regulatory objectives, but they have no wider social significance. Specific institutions of accounting, financial or otherwise, mediate a complex set of social compromises between ideals of autonomy and control. The language of profit, cost, asset and liability which informs financial and management accounting is often less precise than is ordinarily imagined. In recent years it has become increasingly apparent that accounting and audit occupy an important, if not fundamental, position in the conduct of modern government. The constructivist insights about accounting developed above are far from being univocal and lead back to first-order normative issues in different ways.
