Governmental accounting is largely a study of procedures used to organize information used in the fiscal management of governments. At the procedural level that this text book addresses, this particular discipline makes no truth claims over which there is any dispute. All the major worldviews including Christian, Naturalist, and Postmodern would agree, for instance, that debits go on the left and credits go on the right; or that capital leases are recorded differently than operating leases. There are, however, considerable disagreements among accounting experts at higher levels on some issues such as whether fund accounting provides adequate information or if government-wide financial statements are needed to better convey the information.

· Are there “worldview” issues at stake in these higher-level disagreements?

· If so, what are they; if not, what then causes such disagreement, and how can they be resolved?