Cameral accounting in local governments in Czechia

This article offers a unique analysis of cameral accounting (CA) in local governments (LGs) in Czechia during the nineteenth and the first half of the twentieth centuries. Drawing on a wide range of sources, including legislation, textbooks, and original accounting records, it traces the development of CA before its replacement by double-entry accounting in 1953. The analysis compares Czech developments with Walb's (1926, Die Erfolgsrechnung privater und öffentlicher Betriebe. Wien-Berlin: Spaeth and Linde) four-phase model, identifying both parallels and divergences. It further explores the practical benefits of CA for Czech LG accounting in the examined period. The findings reveal that while CA initially served as a progressive and functional tool in the mid-nineteenth century, it gradually evolved, despite repeated adjustments, into a conservative mechanism resistant to reform in the twentieth century.