This thesis has been divided into two volumes: volume I contains the main body of the thesis ( chapters 1-10) and volume II contains appendices. Volume I can he divided into two parts. The first emphasises that: 1- uniformity is in general better than diversity and this may be done by offering a general examination of the concept of uniformity in the accounting literature and arguing, especially for a developing country situation, that the other approach, i.e. the U.K. and U.S.A. accounting system, is significantly irrelavent. 2- Uniformity has been applied in different environments, thUS, the environmental factors of uniformity in three countries ( i.e. West Germany, France and the Soviet Union) are discussed in order to show that uniformity has been applied in different economic and political atmospheres. The second part examines a developing country's attempt ( i.e. Iraq) to apply uniformity. It is argued, that although uniformity in Iraq has certain favourable environmental factors (e.g. central planning) there are [ major weaknesses in the uniform accounting system especially in the area of cost control system which is of paramount importance for satisfying macro and micro requirements in a centrally planned economy, and that unless fundamental changes are made to this area of accounting within the uniform accounting system the whole advantages of uniformity at the micro and macro levels will not be materialised.