A decade of the Caux Round Table: The transnational employer’s network of moral rearmament, between neoliberalism and corporate ethics (1986–1996)
Bonvin, Audrey
A decade of the Caux Round Table: The transnational employer’s network of moral rearmament, between neoliberalism and corporate ethics (1986–1996) - 2020.
49
This article aims to shed light on the first decade of an American–European–Japanese association of economic leaders known as the Caux Round Table (CRT). Meeting annually in Switzerland in the heights of Montreux at the Caux Palace Hotel since 1986, it brings together influential businessmen at the initiative of Frederik Jacques Philips, Olivier Giscard d’Estaing, and Ryuzaburo Kaku. We argue that the CRT’s existence is rooted in the moral rearmament movement and its tradition of industry conferences. Secondly, this article describes the profiles of CRT members, mostly CEOs of multinationals in the secondary sector, most of whom were active in Christian circles. The article also analyzes the translation of the CRT’s discourse into an ethical business guide in 1994. We will then link the definition of the “moral capitalism” advocated by the CRT to Alfred Marshall’s idea of economic chivalry. Finally, the importance of considering religious sociability in transnational elite networks will be highlighted, enabling an understanding of the participants and their paradoxical motives in all their complexity, but also shedding light on the origin, nature, and extent of their collaboration.
A decade of the Caux Round Table: The transnational employer’s network of moral rearmament, between neoliberalism and corporate ethics (1986–1996) - 2020.
49
This article aims to shed light on the first decade of an American–European–Japanese association of economic leaders known as the Caux Round Table (CRT). Meeting annually in Switzerland in the heights of Montreux at the Caux Palace Hotel since 1986, it brings together influential businessmen at the initiative of Frederik Jacques Philips, Olivier Giscard d’Estaing, and Ryuzaburo Kaku. We argue that the CRT’s existence is rooted in the moral rearmament movement and its tradition of industry conferences. Secondly, this article describes the profiles of CRT members, mostly CEOs of multinationals in the secondary sector, most of whom were active in Christian circles. The article also analyzes the translation of the CRT’s discourse into an ethical business guide in 1994. We will then link the definition of the “moral capitalism” advocated by the CRT to Alfred Marshall’s idea of economic chivalry. Finally, the importance of considering religious sociability in transnational elite networks will be highlighted, enabling an understanding of the participants and their paradoxical motives in all their complexity, but also shedding light on the origin, nature, and extent of their collaboration.
Réseaux sociaux