Reviewing the Protection Strategies of Auditing Profession by Genealogy of "Judgment" Concept

Protecting the boundaries of a profession, is a duty which is carried only by its members. For auditors, who have professional duties with financial and economic outcomes, this duty takes a great deal of importance. In fact, the existence of financial and economic outcomes, threatens the safety of audit profession against lawyers and legal courts. Through history of pioneer countries in modern auditing, legislators have penetrated to the audit profession and aimed its main component: "Professional Judgment". Sometimes, the focus has been on regulating the auditors' professional judgments (Rules-Based Accounting) and sometimes on considering the special circumstances and the inevitable flexibility of professional judgments (Principles-Based Accounting). By using Foucault's "Genealogy", the purpose of this research is recognizing auditors' protection strategies against legislators' and other outsiders' threats. Findings show that the combination of Knowledge-Based characteristic of auditing profession and the "Power-Knowledge" mutual relation, results in a permanent conflict between people inside and outside the profession. This conflict is the root of auditors' strategic innovations (such as Rules-Based and Principles-Based Accounting specific characteristics) in response to outsiders' threats and requirements.