Evolution of accounting education in Italy, 1890–1935

Abstract

This article focuses on the development of the study of accounting in the Italian education system between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It also focuses on the subsequent formation of a scientific and experimental forma mentis that would prepare students for administrative and managerial activities in industry, commerce and public administration. Starting from the second half of the nineteenth century – when the presence of accounting in education was limited to secondary school and implemented with sporadic educational initiatives by private bodies – and covering approximately the 50years after the unification of Italy, this study analyses, through the lens of Foucault’s power–knowledge relationship, the institutional and structural measures adopted by the State to develop the study of accounting in Italy, in the period 1890–1935

The accounting history research in the ‘Rivista Italiana di Ragioneria’ (Italian Accounting Review), 1901–2015

“…Accountants, in fact, had a lower status in the allocation of professional assignments than lawyers, despite legal recognition of the Italian accounting profession from 1906 (Coronella et al, 2015). Moreover, despite accounting degrees followed in Business Schools being considered equal to university degrees, they were, in reality, viewed in terms of a secondary school diploma (Ferraris Franceschi, 2012b; Lazzini et al, 2017). The academic recognition of Business Schools took place in 1913, but it was another 20 years until the creation of the Faculty of Economics (Coronella, 2012).…”

“…The relationship between the accounting profession and the university system was enhanced, through: (1) the regulation and legal recognition of modern technical institutes for the educational training of accountants (i.e. Scuole Superiori di Commercio or Business Schools) (Ferraris Franceschi, 2012a;Ferraris Franceschi, 2012b;Lazzini, Iacoviello and Ferraris Franceschi, 2017); and (2) the legal recognition of the accounting profession and its associations (Amaduzzi, 2004: 265 ff. ;Coronella, Sargiacomo and Walker, 2015: 167-197).…”

The governance of standard setting and the role of academia in Italian accounting regulation, 1942 to the present

“…Overall, the provisions of the Civil Code were consistent with the ethos of Italian academia, which was experiencing an extremely stable period strongly tied to the dogma of Economia Aziendale (Coronella, 2014;Galassi and Mattessich, 2004). In this period, Economia Aziendale elevated accounting from commercial practice to a new science (Antonelli, 2012;Lazzini et al, 2018), and accounting academics felt part of a small innovative community in which esteem from colleagues was the main incentive. Zappa's paradigm (Zappa, 1927a) was centred on the economic content of the basic social institutions of a society, such as firms, families and the public sector (the concept of 'azienda' by Zappa, 1950), and it experienced rapid diffusion thanks to the relatively small number of accounting academics, the novelty of the discipline and the strong prevalence of the co-optation mechanism in academic careers (Lai et al, 2015).…”

“…The accounting history literature highlights many of the distinctive features of the Italian accounting academia, suggesting that its research played a leading role in the international arena (Galassi and Mattessich, 2004; Viganò and Mattessich, 2007) in light of its vibrant theoretical tradition. In the nineteenth century, fruitful theoretical developments occurred, and a body of theories was evident in the Italian context (Lazzini et al, 2018; Näsi et al, 2014). Similarly, the Italian doctrine in the twentieth century was innovative and its models and technical solutions were subsequently introduced in the international evaluation system, 1 suggesting that understanding the Italian accounting tradition is important in the current accounting debate at the international level (Adamo et al, 2017).…”

“…Overall, the provisions of the Civil Code were consistent with the ethos of Italian academia, which was experiencing an extremely stable period strongly tied to the dogma of Economia Aziendale (Coronella, 2014; Galassi and Mattessich, 2004). In this period, Economia Aziendale elevated accounting from commercial practice to a new science (Antonelli, 2012; Lazzini et al, 2018) , and accounting academics felt part of a small innovative community in which esteem from colleagues was the main incentive.…”