The politics of inertia

Posted on July 13 2019

In the discussion at yesterday's Corporate Accountability Network launch event I was asked how we could possibly effect change in accounting standards when it takes up to seven years for any change to a standard to take place.

My answer at the time was that this pace of change is, of course, quite ridiculous. There is no reasonable reason on earth why it should take seven years to change an accounting standard. 

There must, then, be good reason why it does take this long for change to take place in accountancy. I think there is. For all the claim made that the existing accounting standard process is politically neutral this is not true. There is inherent in this delay what might most appropriately be called ‘the politics of inertia'; that is, the art of deliberately delaying the process of change to maintain a status quo that suits the interests of those in power. 

Amongst the many things that the CAN will have to address is this issue. Accounting has to not just change, but much faster than it has to date. 

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3 Responses

  1. Pilgrim Slight Return says:
    July 13 2019 at 9:41 am

    Maybe the first citadels you need to assault are the Universities and their MBA courses?

    Get a discussion going there?

  2. Alexei Beria says:
    July 14 2019 at 12:29 pm

    “There is inherent in this delay what might most appropriately be called ‘the politics of inertia’; that is, the art of deliberately delaying the process of change to maintain a status quo that suits the interests of those in power. ”

    This could well double as an apposite description of the three-year obfuscation employed by May in her Brexit negotiations