Shaping “administered decentralisation” through accounting and accountability practices: The case of Italian municipalization (1903-1904)

Journal title CONTABILITÀ E CULTURA AZIENDALE
Author/s Simone Poli, Marco Gatti
Publishing Year 2024 Issue 2024/1
Language English Pages 36 P. 7-42 File size 199 KB
DOI 10.3280/CCA2024-001002
DOI is like a bar code for intellectual property: to have more infomation click here

Below, you can see the article first page

If you want to buy this article in PDF format, you can do it, following the instructions to buy download credits

Article preview

FrancoAngeli is member of Publishers International Linking Association, Inc (PILA), a not-for-profit association which run the CrossRef service enabling links to and from online scholarly content.

Introduction: This paper focuses on the peculiar model that the Italian central gov-ernment adopted in 1903-1904 to directly manage public services. Aim of the work: The aim of this work is to demonstrate how accounting and ac-countability practices introduced by the Italian central government, functioning as representational and translational technologies of government, shaped the archi-tecture of the so-called “administered decentralization”. Methodological approach: This paper is based on an in-depth analysis of primary and secondary sources, including the texts of the law and the Royal Decree enact-ed by the Italian central government in addition to the related parliamentary acts. Empirical material is analyzed and interpreted in light of the Foucauldian idea of govern(mentality). Main findings: This paper highlights the role that accounting and accountability practices played in establishing and shaping power relations among central and local governments involved in the direct management of public services. Originality: Contrary to the extant literature, this paper demonstrates how ac-counting and accountability practices contributed to the establishment of a decen-tralized form of government rather than centralized models. Moreover, it explores the municipalization process in a historical period that remains hitherto unex-plored in the accounting literature.

Keywords: municipalization, public services, municipalities, administrative decen-tralization, accounting and accountability practices, technologies of government.

  1. Foucault M. (1982). The subject and power. In: Dreyfus H.L., Rabinow P., editors. Michel Foucault: Beyond Structuralism and Hermeneutics, Brighton: Harvester Press.
  2. Foucault M. (1991). Govemmentality. In Burchell G., Gordon C., Miller P., editors. The Foucault effect: Studies in Governmentality, Chigago: The University of Chicago Press.
  3. Gatti M., Poli S. (2014). Accounting and the Papal States: the influence of the Pro commissa Bull (1592) on the rise of an early modern state. Accounting History, 19: 475-506. DOI: 10.1177/1032373214550643
  4. Gentile E. (1977). L’età giolittiana, 1899-1914. Napoli: Edizioni Scientifiche Italiane.
  5. Giolitti G. (1902). Relazione ministeriale alla Camera dei deputati. In: Atti Parlamentari, Camera dei Deputati, Legislatura XXI – 2^ Sessione – Doc. n. 1.
  6. Gomes D. (2000). The Interplay of Conceptions of Accounting and Schools of Thought in Accounting History. Accounting History, 13: 479-509. DOI: 10.1177/1032373208095480
  7. Gomes D., Sargiacomo M. (2013). Accounting and accountability in local government: An introduction. Accounting History, 18: 439-446. DOI: 10.1177/1032373213510074
  8. Hines R.D. (1988). Financial accounting: in communicating reality, we construct reality. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 13: 251-261. DOI: 10.1016/0361-3682(88)90003-7
  9. Joshi A., Houtzager P.P. (2012). Widgets or watchdogs? Conceptual explorations in social accountability. Public Management Review, 14: 145-162. DOI: 10.1080/14719037.2012.657837
  10. Keller M. (1990). Regulation and the new economy: Public policy and economic change in America 1900-1933. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
  11. Kuhl A. (2002). Le débat sur le socialisme municipal en allemagne avant 1914 et la municipalisation de l’electricité. In: Kuhl. A., editor. Der Munizipalsozialismus in Europa. Munich: Oldenberg Verlag.
  12. Latour B. (1987). Science in Action. Milton Keynes: Open University Press.
  13. Law no. 103 of 29th March 1903 (1903), -- available at: www.gazzettaufficiale.it/eli/id/1903/04/03/003U0103/sg.
  14. Madonna S., Maran L., Cestari G. (2014). The 1771 and1824 reforms of the University of Ferrara: A Foucauldian analysis of papal interests. Accounting History, 19: 507-532. DOI: 10.1177/1032373214552317
  15. Magliacani M., Di Pietra R. (2019). Power relations and the accounting system in the Archbishop’s Seminary of Siena (1666-1690): When local power resists central power. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 32: 401-420. DOI: 10.1108/AAAJ-03-2015-1987
  16. Majorana A. (1902). Relazione della Commissione alla Camera dei deputati. Atti Parlamentari, Camera dei Deputati, Legislatura XXI – 2^ Sessione – Doc. n. 1-A.
  17. Matthews D. (1986). Laissez-faire and the London gas industry in the nineteenth century: another look. Economic History Review, 39: 244-263.
  18. Fry G.K. (1979). The growth of government: the development of ideas about the role of the state and the machinery and functions of government in Britain since 1780. London: Cass.
  19. Fleischman R. K., Mills P.A., Tyson T.N. (1996). A Theoretical Primer for Evaluating and Conducting Historical Research in Accounting. Accounting History, 1: 55-75. DOI: 10.1177/103237329600100104
  20. Falkus M. (1977). The development of municipal trading in the nineteenth century. Business History, 19: 134-161. DOI: 10.1080/00076797700000023
  21. Edwards P., Ezzamel M., Robson K. (1999). Connecting accounting and education in the UK: Discourses and rationalities of education reform. Critical Perspectives on Accounting, 10: 469-500.
  22. Dubois H.F.W., Fattore G. (2009). Definitions and typologies in public administration research: the case of decentralization. International Journal of Public Administration, 32: 704-727. DOI: 10.1080/01900690902908760
  23. Di Cimbrini T., Funnell W., Bigoni M., Migliori S., Consorti A. (2020). Accounting for Napoleonic imperialism in Tuscany and the Kingdom of Naples. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 33: 391-416. DOI: 10.1108/AAAJ-04-2018-3467
  24. Contento A. (1902). Il fenomeno dell’Urbanismo secondo i risultati dell’ultimo censimento italiano. Giornale degli Economisti, 25: 207-222.
  25. Chua W.F. (1986). Radical developments in accounting thought. Accounting Review, 61: 601-632.
  26. Chatterton D.A. (1972). State control of public utilities in the nineteenth century: the London gas industry. Business History, 14: 166-178. DOI: 10.1080/00076797200000004
  27. Carocci G. (1971). Giolitti e l’età giolittiana: la politica italiana dall’inizio del secolo alla prima guerra mondiale. Torino: Einaudi.
  28. Carnegie G.D., Rodrigues L.L. (2007). Exploring the dimensions of the international accounting history community. Accounting History, 12: 441-464. DOI: 10.1177/1032373207081601
  29. Carnegie G.D., Napier C.J. (2012). Accounting’s past, present and future: The unifying power of history. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 25: 328-369. DOI: 10.1108/09513571211198782
  30. Carnegie G.D., Napier C.J. (2002). Exploring comparative international accounting history. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 15: 689-718. DOI: 10.1108/09513570210448966
  31. Carnegie G.D., Napier C.J. (1996). Critical and interpretive histories: Insights into accounting’s present and future through its past. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 9: 7-39. DOI: 10.1108/09513579610121956
  32. Burchell S., Clubb C., Hopwood G. (1985). Accounting in its social context: towards a history of value added in the United Kingdom”. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 10: 381-413. DOI: 10.1016/0361-3682(85)90002-9
  33. Bracci E., Maran L., Vagnoni E. (2010). Saint Anna’s Hospital in Ferrara: Accounting and organizational change during the devolution. Accounting History, 15: 463-504. DOI: 10.1177/1032373210379757
  34. Bovens M.A.P. (2006). Analysing and Assessing Public Accountability. A Conceptual Framework. European Governance Papers (EUROGOV).
  35. Bortolotti L. (1988). Espansione urbana e municipalizzazione in Italia (1900-1922). In: Berselli A., Della Paruta F., Varni A., editors. La municipalizzazione in area padana. Storia di esperienze a confronto. Milano: FrancoAngeli.
  36. Bigoni M., Funnell W. (2015). Ancestors of governmentality: Accounting and pastoral power in the 15th century. Critical Perspectives on Accounting, 27: 160-176.
  37. Berselli A., Della Paruta F., Varni A. (1988). La Municipalizzazione in area padana. Storia di esperienze a confront. Milano: FrancoAngeli.
  38. Robson K. (1992). Accounting numbers as ‘inscription’: Action at a distance and the development of accounting. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 17: 685-708. DOI: 10.1016/0361-3682(92)90019-O
  39. Robson K. (1994). Inflation accounting and action at a distance: The Sandilands episode. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 19: 45-82. DOI: 10.1016/0361-3682(94)90012-4
  40. Robson K., Cooper D.J. (1989). Power and management control. In: Chua W.F., Puxty T., Lowe T., editors. Critical Perspectives in Management Control. London: Macmillan.
  41. Rose N. (1991). Governing by number: figuring out democracy. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 16: 673-692.
  42. Rose N., Miller P. (1992). Political power beyond the state: problematics of government. British Journal of Sociology, 43: 172-205.
  43. Royal Decree no. 108 of 10th March 1904 (1904), -- available at: www.gazzetta ufficiale.it/eli/id/1904/03/30/004U0108/sg.
  44. Royal Decree no. 164 of 4th May 1898 (1898), -- available at: www.gazzetta ufficiale.it/eli/id/1898/05/23/098U0164/sg.
  45. Sánchez-Matamoros J.B., Domínguez-Orta M., Gutiérrez-Hidalgo F. (2016). Accounting in the dynamic of discourses: The rise and fall of the Spanish system of intendants. Accounting History, 21: 472-488. DOI: 10.1177/1032373216652632
  46. Sargiacomo M., Gomes D. (2011). Accounting and accountability in local government: contribution for accounting history research. Accounting History, 16: 253-290. DOI: 10.1177/1032373211407043
  47. Sargiacomo M., Ianni L., D’Andreamatteo A. (2014). Contabilità e governo dell’economia agricola della nazione: Arrigo Serpieri e la riforma dei consorzi di bonifica. Contabilità e Cultura Aziendale, 14: 85-111. DOI: 10.3280/CCA2014-001006
  48. Schneider A. (2003). Decentralization: Conceptualization and measurement. Studies in Comparative International Development, 38: 32-56. DOI: 10.1007/BF02686198
  49. Servalli S. (2013). The interface of power and charity in the government of poor. A case from the Italian context in the sixteenth-seventeenth centuries. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 26: 1306-1341. DOI: 10.1108/AAAJ-05-2013-1360
  50. Sidorova M., Nazarov D., Vakhrushina M. (2018). The Enlightenment as determinant of accounting change: The case of royal estate bookkeeping during the reign of Catherine II. Accounting History, 24: 185-211. DOI: 10.1177/1032373218814269
  51. Spence L.J., Rinaldi L. (2014). Governmentality in accounting and accountability: A case study of embedding sustainability in a supply chain. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 36: 433-452.
  52. Stewart J.D. (1984). The role of information in public accountability. In: Hopwood A., Tomkins C., editors. Issues in public sector accounting, Oxford: Phillip Allen.
  53. Walsh E.J., Stewart R.E. (1993). Accounting and the construction of institutions: the case of a factory. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 18: 783-800. DOI: 10.1016/0361-3682(93)90052-8
  54. Baker C.R., Quéré B.P. (2015). Historical innovations in the regulation of business and accounting practices: A comparison of absolutism and liberal democracy. Accounting History, 20: 250-265. DOI: 10.1177/1032373215595486
  55. Arnold P., Oakes L.S. (1995). Hospital in the United States: a study of the entity assumption in accounting. Critical Perspectives on Accounting, 6: 105-123.
  56. ANIDEL (1961). Municipalizzazione dei pubblici servizi. Roma: Anidel.
  57. Agrawal A., Ribot J. (1999). Accountability in decentralization: A framework with South Asian and West African Cases. The Journal of Developing Areas, 33: 473-502.
  58. McConnell T.R. (1971). Accountability and autonomy. The Journal of Higher Education, 42: 446-463. DOI: 10.1080/00221546.1971.11774873
  59. Miller P. (1990). On the interrelations between accounting and the State. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 15: 315-340. DOI: 10.1016/0361-3682(90)90022-M
  60. Miller P. (1994). Accounting as social and institutional practice: An introduction. In: Hopwood A.G., Miller P., editors. Accounting as social and institutional practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  61. Miller P. (2001). Governing by numbers: why calculative practices matter. Social Research, 68: 379-396.
  62. Miller P., O’Leary T. (1987). Accounting and the construction of the governable person. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 12: 235-265. DOI: 10.1016/0361-3682(87)90039-0
  63. Miller P., Rose N. (1990). Governing economic life. Economy and Society, 19: 1-31. DOI: 10.1080/03085149000000001
  64. Millward R. (2005). Ideology, technology and economic policy. In: Millward R., editor. Private and public enterprise in Europe: energy, telecommunications and transport, 1830-1990. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  65. Millward R. (2007). Business and the State. In: Jones G., Zeitlin J., editors. The Oxford handbook of business history. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  66. Millward R. (2011). The institutional economic history of infrastructure industries, 1830-1990: ideology, technology, geopolitics? In: Finger M., Künneke R.W., editors. International handbook of network industries: The liberalization of infrastructure. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing.
  67. Millward R., Ward R. (1993). From private to public ownership of gas undertakings in England and Wales, 1851-1947: Chronology, incidence and causes. Business History, 35: 1-21. DOI: 10.1080/00076799300000084
  68. Mulgan R. (2003). Holding power to account: accountability in modern democracies, New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
  69. Neu D. (1999). ‘Discovering’ indigenous peoples: Accounting and the machinery of empire. Accounting Historians Journal, 26: 53-82. DOI: 10.2308/0148-4184.26.1.53
  70. Neu D. (2000a). ‘Presents’ for the ‘Indians’: Land, colonialism and accounting in Canada. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 25: 163-184. DOI: 10.1016/S0361-3682(99)00030-6
  71. Neu D. (2000b). Accounting and accountability relations: Colonization, genocide and Canada’s first nations. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 13: 268-288. DOI: 10.1108/09513570010334126
  72. Neu D., Ocampo Gomez E., Graham C., Heincke M.M. (2006). ‘Informing’ technologies and the World Bank. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 31: 635–662. DOI: 10.1016/J.AOS.2005.07.002
  73. Nikidehaghani M., Hui F. (2016). Accounting and accountability for disability benefits in Australia, 1909-1961. Accounting History, 22: 348-369. DOI: 10.1177/1032373216664369
  74. Pischel G. (1965). La municipalizzazione in Italia: ieri, oggi, domani. Roma: Confederazione della Municipalizzazione.
  75. Preston A.M., Chua W.F., Neu D. (1997). The diagnosis-related group prospective payment system and the problem of government of rationing health care to the elderly. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 22: 147-164. DOI: 10.1016/S0361-3682(96)00011-6
  76. Rahman A.S., Everett J., Neu D. (2007). Accounting and the move to privatize water services in Africa. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 20: 637-670. DOI: 10.1108/09513570710778992
  77. Robson K. (1991). On the arenas of accounting change: the process of translation. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 16: 547-570. DOI: 10.1016/0361-3682(91)90041-C

Simone Poli, Marco Gatti, Shaping “administered decentralisation” through accounting and accountability practices: The case of Italian municipalization (1903-1904) in "CONTABILITÀ E CULTURA AZIENDALE" 1/2024, pp 7-42, DOI: 10.3280/CCA2024-001002