THE RELIGIOUS IDEOLOGY OF THE BUSINESS ROUND-TABLE

The article is in two parts with the first part showing that the mater ial in the New Zealand Business Roundtable documents is consistent wit h the contemporary, international, libertarian ideology. The second pa rt draws parallels between this material and the characteristics shown by religious movements, including a claiming of authority from past p rophets, a belief in an overarching Power, a missionary zeal to conver t others, a canon of texts, a 'theodicy', a sense of bonding among bel ievers, a 'doctrine' of humanity, and the use of ritual language. The article concludes that the documents show a self-supporting belief sys tem built on a fallacious theoretical premise. (C) 1998 John Wiley & S ons, Ltd.