AGENCY THEORY AS IDEOLOGY - A COMPARATIVE-ANALYSIS BASED ON CRITICAL LEGAL THEORY AND RADICAL ACCOUNTING

This paper explores the similarities in legal and accounting theory with reference to their foundations in neoclassical economics. Neoclassical legal theorists argue that governmental interference in employment should be minimized and that individual contractual arrangements are a superior means of resolving organizational conflict. Similarly, agency-based accounting researchers argue that the demand for accounting reports derives from, and should be based on, the equilibrium set of "free" market-determined contracts. Both critical legal theorists and radical accountants contend that the "market" concept and its theoretical derivatives are ideological constructs which obscure the biases of power inherent in economic organizations. When applied to organizational structure, critical theory and radical accounting mutually enrich the insights of the respective disciplines. © 1990.