Revolution and the Accountant: the Practice and Profession of Accounting in Cambodia

This paper extends the existing literature on accounting and colonialism. The question addressed in this paper is what would happen if the historical and political processes were disrupted to the extent that the development of an accounting practice and profession linked to colonial powers was no longer inevitable. Given the French colonial history it is reasonable to expect that Cambodia would develop a Continental European model of accounting profession influenced by the French. However, in this case there was little evidence of the emergence of a recognisable accounting profession under the French. The Khmer Rouge (KR) interrupted the ‘normal’ patterns of post-colonial social and professional development. This paper discusses that there was little capacity for accounting to exercise a particular elite role within the post-colonial and Marxist Cambodia as greater part of the Cambodian educated and middle class were killed. Cambodia offers an interesting example of an evolutionary extinction event in the accounting profession which is radically different to the literature on the accounting profession in both developed and developing countries.