Trends and Open Issues in Governmental Accounting System: some Elements of Comparison

This paper aims at analysing the state of the art of governmental accounting systems in some market economy countries. The guide-lines of the reforms implemented or under discussion in the leading countries are consequently presented and commented, some degree of uniformity is pointed out, and the main trends (and their related application issues) of governmental accounting systems are identified.From a methodological perspective, the observations made here are based on the analysis of reference material and original documents.The paper begins by defining precisely the meaning that is attributed to the term “accounting” in the course of the paper itself.The reasons behind innovation in the accounting field are subsequently discussed and some innovations actually implemented in various countries are reviewed, in order to pinpoint the results achieved, as well as the main trends and uniform patterns of behaviour.The last section deals with some open issues, and some conclusions are put forward.