Accounting and the state in post-communist Romania

This research integrates Broadbent and Laughlin's (1997, 2005, 2013) views on societal transformation while aiming to discover the state's influence over accounting - through accounting regulations issued as an absolute standard setter - during the transformation process of Romania from a communist centralised economy to a market economy. Using an interpretative qualitative methodology, this research demonstrates the dominant role of the state on accounting and the internal colonisation of organisations' financial reporting, simultaneously with accounting 'lifeworld' in the early post-communist period. The study proves that this relationship had the tendency to change over time into an evolution-type relationship, and the societal institutions' actions are getting closer to values and beliefs accumulated by accounting professionals. This is mainly due to the emergence of other societal mechanisms on the financial reporting market, such as the accounting profession and the financial institutions. International Financial Reporting Standards are a contributor to the decrease of the state's influence.