1. Introduction
For some years now, an interest in knowing and analyzing the international accounting standard has emerged in our country, the result of the processes of globalization of the economy and the consequent transnationalization of the company. This concern has branched out into trends, typical of processes of a normative nature, on the one hand the nationalist current and on the other the internationalists or advocates of the adoption of the norm.
They arise from the first position of defending the autonomy of the nation, criticizing the norm itself, due to its character focused on a type of economic business and serving the interests of financial capital, among others arising from the analysis of the norm.
There have also been criticisms of the issuers of these standards, and this is where the genesis of the problem of international standards lies with the nationalists who use these “shortcomings” in issuers (influence of transnational corporations for the issuance of standards, among others) for some of his speeches to the knowledge terrorists; The strengthening of this nationalist discourse from the perspective of the issuance of the norm is the intrinsic object of this work, which will be carried out by developing the pertinent diachronic analysis, with the proviso that said analysis may go from being a nationalist discourse to becoming a more apology. of accounting standardization in our country.
In the underground conflict that today draws attention in the accounting profession between nationalists and internationalists regarding the international standard, there are some particular and very interesting elements in the discourse of both positions; One of them is the constant criticism of the focused nature of a particular type of business (the stock market) of international accounting legislation. This observation transcends the concern of Latin American countries that have little interest in the stock market, as if they have it in their startups and of regular size - be it considered for its limited scope of territorial action, its tiny capital or its brief human resource-which nevertheless constitute the basis for its economic sustainability over time,This necessarily leads to the convenience of maintaining productive capital rather than financial capital, as the essence of the international norm suggests.
From here they begin to glimpse conflicting positions, with their own interests, which guide their performance, until today, of reflection, theorizing, and normalization. In these interests, as engines of the work of the actors in the struggle in question, part of the theory of false knowledge in accounting constructions is based, based on the reflections of the professors of the University of Rochester, RL Watts, and JL Zimmerman, and that will be the main theoretical course of these lines.
2. Sociology of knowledge and scientific community.
The immense field of reflection of a sociology of knowledge includes, among other aspects, the analysis of the causes of the gestation of knowledge, where the concept of the scientific community as a cultural conditioner of the constructions developed there by its members comes into discussion. This concept becomes imperative for our analysis of the actions of the main professional and accounting bodies referenced in the posthumous section.
Parallel to the development of a sociology of knowledge, the theoretical paths of false knowledge are established, taking up many of the constructions of the first knowledge, without becoming part of it.
3. False knowledge in our discipline
The gestation of knowledge from specific interests comes to be proclaimed in our discipline by the work of the professors of the University of Rochester referred to above, under a scheme of market ideas - theories - where accounting constructions are demanded for specific purposes, and in response, they are offered by the accounting scientific community. This transaction is carried out with particular nuances for a regulated and an unregulated economy.
Under these delineations we find on the old shelves of the history of accounting constructions, if not the genesis, at least the most important sample of the impregnation of concrete interests in the elaboration of accounting constructs, whether they are materialized in norms, principles or theories. We are talking about the interest in protecting the stock market, and therefore maintaining the financial capital that it holds. We find this concern referenced in the United States geographic framework, the importance of which lies in the early development of accounting standards and the undeniable impact on the structure of the Western profession.
4. The AIA in the awakening of the great depression
In 1916 the American Institute of Accountants AIA was born, as an immediate consequence of the need for uniformity in the structure of the accounting profession. This body begins to set accounting practices through its Special Bulletins, and, according to Moonitz, accounting principles were deduced from its Uniform Accounts. From the above it is deduced the importance of said organism for the homogeneous development of the profession.
In the time frame of the validity of this organism, one of the most catastrophic events in the world economy is presented, the Great Depression of 1929, the product of innumerable events around the globe, such as the Second World War and the already deficient application of the concepts economic classics, founded by the well-known scholars Adan Smith, David Ricardo and John Stuart Mill, among others.
This economic catastrophe characterized by the fall of the most important stock exchanges in the world, in our particular that of New York, leads to a drastic change in the financial information required for presentation purposes in the stock market. As is obvious, the professional accounting body in question was permeated by the new requirements that arose from the crisis, an example of which is the requirement induced by the New York Stock Exchange, welcomed by the AIA to create a permanent committee that would reflect and make contributions in accounting and auditing matters that affect professional actions, with the ultimate goal of benefiting investment in the stock market, in need of financial information supported by pre-established accounting principles by renowned professional institutions,and with the subsequent consequence of protecting the shareholders of the speculative position.
5. New economic theory of state intervention.
After the crisis of 1929, new ideas were developed for the economic model that should guide the destiny of the American countries, it is state interventionism, a proposal led by the renowned economist John Maynard Keynes, who with his idea of a welfare state (with marked Marxist influence) and influential in market decisions, proposes the reduction of the failures that it presents as a mechanism of redistribution of wealth.
6. The role of the SEC
Under this new economic paradigm prevailing from that time until the 1970s, the two-way relationship between the stock market and the scientific accounting community developed, tempered by the creation of the Securities and Exchange Commission in 1934 by Congress and in response to the necessary regulation of the stock market by government authority, typical procedure in the Keynesian economic model. In the framework of the generation of knowledge interested in a regulated economy, this event would have as its initial engine the propensity of the politician for the debatable concept of "public interest", an immediate excuse to corroborate the goodness of its management. But this is only the beginning, since the SEC's mission, supported by its legal authority, becomes a demand factor for accounting theories,that come to be offered by the accounting bodies in force at the time. In other words, the Stock Market authority requires accounting procedures in pursuit of investors and the accounting community develops and normalizes them for accountants.
The foregoing is nuanced with the issuance of Accounting Series Relaises by the SEC where it establishes accounting standards, procedures and practices as requirements for the acceptance on the stock exchange of the financial statements of the companies interested in participating in said position.
It is necessary to mention that given the difference in approaches given for the regulation of accounting behavior, the emergence of friction between government and professional organizations is inevitable, the former with their constant demagogic deficiencies and corrupt economic interests; and the latter with their constant scientific revolutions within the theories accepted by the member scientific community that give their actions a dynamism, which sometimes collides with passive legal regulations and not willing to change.
Postures in the situation described
The epistemic impact of the previous conjuncture can be channeled in two ways, one that, unconcerned about the consequences of accounting theorizing based on concurrent interests, optimistically, enunciates the dialectical occurrence of these events as necessary for the construction of a theory necessarily Forged in historical experience, and on the other hand, the pessimistic perspective that all accounting construction obeys a market of excuses, constituting this as the only engine of its elaboration.
7. Change of economic paradigm: neoliberalism
“The exhaustion of the power of conviction of the Keynesian and ECLAC theories, particularly from 1973, the year of the great oil shock, gave way to a rebirth of the positions that defend the free operation of the market. It is when neoliberalism arises. The ideas of Friedman, Buchanam and Von Hayek found supporters in many places on earth. " Under this new paradigm, the generation of interested knowledge according to Watts and Zimmerman acquires another nuance, on the one hand theories are generated by the need for information and on the other they arise as justification for concrete actions. These two demand functions are framed in the concept of a corporation, where a coalition of interests from shareholders, managers and auditors come together:The owner of the shares requires information to evaluate the manager's performance, provided by the independent auditor who requires from the theoretical procedural guidelines to fulfill the entrusted task. Here the theory of the manager's own interest plays an important role –the agency theory–, since it reveals the tendencies of the agent's behavior against the interests of the principal; For this reason, it is based on the constructions of the accounting scientific community that offers theories in this regard.For this reason, it is based on the constructions of the accounting scientific community that offers theories in this regard.For this reason, it is based on the constructions of the accounting scientific community that offers theories in this regard.
8. Internationalization of the supply of theories
It is important to remember that within the framework of this economic system of globalization and almost blind faith in the panacea of the market mechanism, the first attempts to internationalize accounting practices and principles arise, in response to the new environment of the company, which transcends national borders. As a result of this, professional organizations such as the IASC and the IFAC arise, to start the task of unifying practices of education, accounting, ethics, professional qualification, among others. But here is a new sample of demand for accounting theories due to concurrent interests in these organizations: transnational companies have their main domiciles in first world countries, who are the managers of the creation of international accounting organizations,and that when observing the fundamental characteristics of the regulations issued by them, one finds the favorability towards this type of companies, a specific case is that of the considerable reduction of information management costs in different countries if a single regulation were implemented for all the nations, which under a nationalist perspective would lead to the opening of borders so that the transnational corporations entered without any barrier to invade the internal market and strengthen the speculative financial capital that many of them hold.concrete case is that of the considerable reduction of information management costs in different countries if a single regulation were implemented for all nations, which under a nationalist perspective would lead to the opening of borders so that transnational corporations could enter without any barrier to invade the internal market and strengthen the speculative financial capital that many of them hold.concrete case is that of the considerable reduction of information management costs in different countries if a single regulation were implemented for all nations, which under a nationalist perspective would lead to the opening of borders so that transnational corporations could enter without any barrier to invade the internal market and strengthen the speculative financial capital that many of them hold.
The offer of accounting reflections in this context responds not only to the factors listed in the theory of false knowledge: prestige and reputation, but also to the incidence of a category of thought in the accounting scientific community, accepted by all its members, is the to strengthen the transnational company and international speculative capital as bases for the support of the New International Financial Structure.
The concern today is to conceptualize whether or not to adopt international regulations, but it must be borne in mind that the prevailing theoretical economic framework will not last forever, and that the awakening of a new crisis will lead us to totally different concerns., that another demand and its consequent offer of knowledge will develop.
9. Conclusions
The dynamism of the creation of knowledge materialized in norms, principles, theories, etc., carried out in a hypothetical market of ideas that obeys the classical and neoclassical economic logic of supply and demand, does not detract from the constructions thus conceived, it is plus an idea proclaimed by fans of absolute apriorism and isolated from reality, that only fully aseptic knowledge is valid. Even the concept of validity cannot escape the influence of interests to support it.
What is really important is not the validity, but the consequences for the well-being of human life of any construction, in any discipline, especially in the social sciences, because any knowledge can be refuted or claimed but life is simply not questioned, only their sustainability and dignity are defended.
On the other hand, in an optimistic perspective that false knowledge is not the only engine for the generation of accounting constructions, its importance is not ruled out, since it constitutes an unequivocal sample of interaction with the environment, where relationships of mutual influence between theory and environment, thus giving dynamism to the profession that consequences will be generated through a dialectical process for the epistemic-methodological development of the accounting discipline.
10. Bibliography
• Tua Pereda Jorge. Accounting principles and standards. Madrid. 1983
• García Julita, Lorca Pedro. Acceptance of international accounting standards: a process not without difficulties. In: magazine Legis del accountant No 10. 2002
• Mejía Soto Eutimio. Introduction to international accounting standards. Armenia. Quindio's University. 2003-10-13
• Rodríguez de Rivera, José. Agency Theory. © Copyright 1999 All Rights Reserved
• Spain Rafael. Are the ideas of economists oversized? In: editorial portafolio.com. 2002
• Pina Martínez, Vicente. Economic effects of the accounting standard. Madrid: aeca. 1988
• Conceptual framework of international accounting standards for the preparation and presentation of financial statements. IASCF.2001
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