Abstract
This chapter provides an analysis of the context within which accounting standard setters appear to operate. For this purpose, regulatory agency theory and practice has been utilised. The justifications for classifying accounting standard setting bodies as regulatory agencies are twofold and based on both structure and function. Regulation is defined as ‘A rule prescribed for the management of some matter or the regulating of conduct’ (Oxford English Dictionary, 1989). In the UK context, the regulation of conduct could be applied to accounting standards. The recognition of accounting standards in company law and the presence of a quasi-enforcement mechanism in the shape of the Review Panel reflects the status of these rules.1 The classification of standard setting bodies as agencies admits a wide number of possible organisational forms with the term being applied to organisations carrying out a governmental type of function while remaining independent from any branch of government (Shafritz, 1985; Chandler and Plano, 1988). Alternatively, agencies may be described as “organisations that involve voluntary and private enterprise resources but which nevertheless receive public funding and undertake tasks crucial to public policy” (Stoker, 1990, p. 127).
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Day, R. (2001). The ‘Public Interest’ in the Context of Accounting Regulation. In: McLeay, S., Riccaboni, A. (eds) Contemporary Issues in Accounting Regulation. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-4589-7_4
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