World order and governance changes at the IASC: 1946--2000

Evolutions within the international accounting standards setting institution are one example of how power relations among transnational actors---public and private, state and non-state---were altered by the forces of globalization. New governance arrangements within the international accounting standards setting institution take the form of an independent group of standard setting experts purposely networked with key national standard setting bodies. These standards setting experts are overseen by trustees representing public and private actors from within a strengthened global financial system. In a bid to improve the understanding of forces propelling governance changes within the international accounting standards setting system, this thesis embeds Cox's method of historical structures within a periodization-based study of world order, global financial architecture and international accounting standards setting.; A review of developments within each of three levels of analysis reveals four common epochs of institutional change. Economic interdependence and globalization emerge as overarching forces propelling this institutional change. I find that an increase in ideological space associated with a hyper-liberal globalization agenda and the related need for financial stability enabled the embedding of a "quality-independence-technical expertise" discourse within international accounting standards governance-related debates. That discourse legitimized a quasi-judicial governance system at the same time as which an existing quasi-legislative system was de-legitimized.