Einzelbeitrag Nr. 3: Cui bono? Depicting the benefits of the new municipal budgeting and accounting regime in Germany

The municipal budgeting and accounting regime in Germany is facing a time of fundamental upheaval (Lüder 2001; Kettl 2000; Lüder/Jones 2003; Kiamann/Wielenberg 2010; Jagalla/Becker/Weber 2011). The majority of the approximately 12,500 municipalities in Germany are currently modernizing their traditional cameralistic budgeting and accounting system (cash-accounting) by switching to accrual budgeting and accounting (

Doppik

). While the Federal Government and most of Germany's federal states decided to innovate towards the so-called “extended cameralistic accounting” (

erweiterte Kameralistik

), four federal states (Hamburg, Bremen, Hesse and North Rhine-Westphalia) decided to adopt private sector accounting arrangements (Hilgers 2011; Jones/Lüder 2011).