Management guru Tom Peters is the best-selling business author in history. His 1982 book "In Search of Excellence" was tremendously popular and influential, as were the two that followed, "Liberation Management" and "Thriving on Chaos."

In an interview in the October 1997 issue of Reason magazine, Peters described his politics in the following way:

"I have... economic views that are far to the right of Jack Kemp, and social views that are far to the left of Jesse Jackson."

That makes him, he said, "...sort of a libertarian, kinda, in a way."

However, he says he avoids that label because he has "much too pessimistic a view of humanity" which keeps him from being a "pure libertarian."

Pessimistic or not, America's most influential business/management writer is clearly quite close to libertarianism.

(Sources: Reason / Libertarian Party News)