charge of formulating proposals for the organization of standard-setting in Great Britain. It is worth detailing some features of Ronald Dearing's professional background. Former senior civil servant of the Department of Trade and Industry, Ronald Dearing (1930-2009) is used to crisis situations. Before chairing the committee in charge of formulating recommendations regarding accounting standard-setting, he was chairman and chief executive of the British Post Office (1981-1987) while the company went through a difficult period. He also chaired, in the early 1990s, a committee in charge of formulating proposals regarding the higher education and advised the government in this field.

As far as accounting standard-setting is concerned, the proposals formulated by the Dearing committee were nearly all adopted. One of the main features was keeping accounting standard-setting in the realm of the private sector but supported not only by the accounting profession but by the whole accounting and financial community. The institutions that were set are very similar to the American standard-setting institutions in place since 1973. Although in the private sector, some elements reinforce the role of the State and of the law. According to the Dearing Report, the role of government should be that of « facilitator ». A number of measures were introduced in the Companies Act in order to reinforce the authority of accounting standards; for instance, the recognition, in the law, of accounting standards provided, for the first time, a legal recognition to standards. Besides, the government provided a substantial financial contribution: the Department of Trade and Industry contributed to one third of the budget, equally to the participation of the accounting profession (through the CCAB) and to that of the financial and banking community (through mainly the Stock Exchange).

Conclusion

Three stages emerge from the previous analysis : A stage of no institutional standard-setting (before 1970): accounting regulation is oriented by very few prescriptions in the law and the importance of professional judgment in relation with the true and fair view; A stage of standard-setting organized by the accounting profession (1970-1990): standard- setting is in the hand of the accounting institutes (financing, membership). The involvement of the State and the authority of law begin only to be formalized after 1990.

Therefore, for a long time, accounting regulation was in the hands of the profession, being considered as self-regulation. Accounting institutes and the accounting profession includes accountants in firms as well as accountants working for companies or in the public sector. The British case is a typical example of the Anglo-Saxon tradition of accounting standard- setting where accounting matters are entrusted to the accounting profession. Because they deal, on a daily basis, with accounting issues, accountants, either in firms, in companies or in universities, are the best suited to the task of developing standards and of tackling the increasing complexity of the problems to be handled.

The role of the State in organizing the setting of accounting rules is therefore reduced in Great Britain. However, from the years 1980-1990, increasing awareness of the political dimension of accounting standards and their impact on the distribution of wealth forced mentalities to change and to consider accounting standards as a matter of public policy where the State has a role to play as a facilitator.

Comparison with France, and also with Germany, have to be developed to define the future of accounting.
Bibliographie

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McBarnet D., Whelan C.J. (1992), « Regulating accounting: limits in the law » in *Accounting and the law*, coord. by M. Bromwich et A. Hopwood, Prentice Hall/ICAEW, pp. 99-111.

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Table des matières

<table><tr><td>Glossaire</td><td>3</td></tr><tr><td>1/ Avant-propos</td><td>4</td></tr><tr><td>1 / Historique de la convention</td><td>10</td></tr><tr><td>1.1 Le projet</td><td>11</td></tr><tr><td>1.2 Réalisations</td><td>20</td></tr><tr><td>2 / L'efficacité des normes comptables, une mise en perspective historique</td><td>26</td></tr><tr><td>2.1 Avant la norme : qu'est-ce qu'un cadre comptable efficace (XIXe siècle-1940)?</td><td>29</td></tr><tr><td>2.2 L'impulsion décisive du prescripteur et du garant étatique (1940-1962)</td><td>36</td></tr><tr><td>2.3 Les deux vitesses de la normalisation: « vingt décisives » en vase clos (1962-1981)</td><td>44</td></tr><tr><td>2.4 Les deux vitesses de la normalisation : inflexion européenne et retrait du CNC, des abandons de souveraineté (1957-1982)?</td><td>51</td></tr><tr><td>3/ Principales conclusions et perspectives</td><td>57</td></tr><tr><td>1) Les apports de l'histoire</td><td>57</td></tr><tr><td>2) Une évolution des critères d'efficacité et de légitimité : d'une légitimité à l'autre</td><td>58</td></tr><tr><td>3) De la légitimité des normes internationales</td><td>60</td></tr><tr><td>4) Des apports de la recherche</td><td>61</td></tr><tr><td>5) Quelques points de conclusion</td><td>62</td></tr><tr><td>Annexes</td><td>69</td></tr></table>