The state relationship with religion: Defined through disciplinary procedures of accounting and regulation

Abstract

State regulation of charities is increasing. Nevertheless, although religious entities also pursue charitable objectives, jurisdictions often regulate them differently. In some states (including England until recently), the church (religious charities) are not called to account for their common-good contribution, despite owning significant assets and receiving public and government income. These regulatory and accounting variations emanate from a state’s historically informed positional relationship with religion, which may be discordant against increasing religious pluralism and citizens’ commonly-held beliefs. To open a debate on state–church relationships within the accounting history literature, this article analyses changes in England since 1534. It utilises a state–church framework from Monsma and Soper, combined with an application and extension of Foucauldian governmentality. The longitudinal study shows direct and indirect governmentality tools change with the state–church relationship. Such harmonisation of regulatory approach relies on citizens/entities subverting imposition of state demands which fail to meet their concept of common-good.

Accounting and governance in diverse settings – an introduction

“…However, the state–church relationship has changed over the century, and governmentality devices have also witnessed changes, such as in the roles and practices of accounting (Monsma and Soper, 2009). By exploring the evolution of charity regulation as well as accounting and accountability requirements in this context in England, Cordery (2019) presents a longitudinal historical case study. From the early sixteenth century to the present, she identifies three main phases of evolution of the state–church relationship and of the governmentality tools adopted.…”

AAAJ, thematic special issues and research innovation: revisiting the next decade

“…McPhail and Cordery (2019) in "Theological perspectives on accounting. Worldviews don't change overnight" argue the case that the flow of publications since 2004 indicates that this concern for neglect is no longer apparent.…”

“…The authors build upon McPhail's (2011) study of the emergence of post-secular critical accounting research and Cordery's (2015) accounting and religion review paper, along with other relevant published works since the 2004 special issue was published. These include the special issue on the theme "Accounting and religion" published in Accounting History, guest edited by Carmona and Ezzamel (2006), including an article by Cordery (2006) (also see the more recently published contribution by Cordery, 2019). McPhail and Cordery (2019) draw upon Orlikowski's (2015) categorisation of the diverse ways researchers in organisational studies have engaged with the notion of "practice".…”

Accounting and work in the charities: The case of an Italian institution in the nineteenth century

“…Investigation of charities and their financial reports and the information they provide for stakeholders for making decisions has been ongoing since the latter part of last century (Connolly and Hyndman, 2013; Hyndman, 1990). Although reporting in charities has been under investigation from different perspectives, the information regarding accounting procedures in relation to activities and human resources in ancient charities needs to be considered (Cordery, 2019). Also, the role of accounting in charities and its changes over time have been under investigation in previous literature (Heier, 2016; Hyndman, 1990; Langton and West, 2016; Molyneaux, 2004), but the impact of transformation of charities on accounting systems have been largely ignored.…”