Mont Pelerin Society

The Mont Pelerin Society was established in 1947 is a combination of liberal intellectuals whose aim is the defense and promotion of freedom, rule of law, private property and competition.

History

The Mont Pelerin Society dates back to a meeting of the Mont Pelerin ( at Vevey on Lake Geneva, between Lausanne and Montreux ) in Switzerland on April 1, 1947 to Friedrich von Hayek 36 liberalism related scholars - especially economists, but eg philosophers, historians and politicians - had invited. Hayek's intention was to discuss the future of liberalism after the Second World War. The scholars from other members at the meeting planned economy and state interventionist ambitions a rejection and saw a restoration of political freedom and the free market as an indispensable prerequisite for a sustainable financial future after the Second World War.

Participants in the first session ( 1 to 10 April 1947) were among others Maurice Allais, Walter Eucken, Milton Friedman, Friedrich August von Hayek, Frank Knight, Fritz Machlup, Ludwig von Mises, Karl Popper, Wilhelm Röpke, George Stigler. In the Mont Pelerin Society Albert Hunold and Friedrich August von Hayek took over the lead.

Popper differed from the others, when he called before the creation, and also at the first meeting of the Mont Pelerin Society to make contact with some socialists to counteract a homogeneity in the basic assumptions among the members - something that he in his philosophy as fundamentally problematic looked - and to work towards reconciliation between socialists and liberals. However, his claims were not implemented. He remained despite its membership in its humanitarian -oriented rather than market-oriented setting and emphasized shortly before his death, he considered it nonsense to bring the principle of free markets to idols.

An early breakthrough came in the neo-liberals in the Federal Republic of Germany with Erhard's economic reforms, whose main features were explained at the Mont Pelerin. Walter Eucken declared there a currency reform in conjunction with a liberalization of prices as a condition for an economic boom. In the 1950s and 1960s, there were clashes between the American wing to von Hayek, von Mises and Milton Friedman on the one hand and the German wing on the other. The represented primarily by Rustow, Röpke and Mueller Armack German wing defended the social market economy against the preferred by the American wing " adjective -less " market economy and argued for a more active responsibility of the State as a comprehensive social vitality and social policy. They threw the American wing betrayal of the actual goals of neoliberalism in front and emphasized the dangers of moral " blunt and bare economism ". Mises wrote the mid-1950s in a letter: "I have growing doubts that it is possible to cooperate with the Ordo - interventionism in the Mont Pelerin Society ( in the original. I have more and more doubts Whether it is possible to cooperate with Ordo - interventionism in the Mont Pelerin Society) ". The clashes escalated in the Hunold affair, which resulted in Wilhelm Röpke and Alexander Rustow leaked from society. At the same time, the neo-liberal thinking radicalized. The less government, the better the market, was the credo of the younger Chicago School of Milton Friedman. Even Hayek called by now that the " competition as a discovery procedure " should not be disturbed by government intervention. Neoliberalism turned back to the laissez- faire.

Overall, you were so far to eight Nobel Laureate in Economics, in addition to Hayek, Friedman and Stigler and Gary Becker still Allais, James M. Buchanan, Ronald Coase and Vernon L. Smith.

While American participants clearly were in the minority at the Colloque Walter Lippmann, they found in the Mont Pelerin Society from the beginning half of the members.

Organization

Since 1949, the company (usually ) meets once a year. In addition to the main sessions, there are regional and extraordinary meetings of members. The membership now stands at over 1000th The Mont Pelerin Society, in contrast to other think tanks no fixed staff, publications are not available.

President

  • Friedrich von Hayek (1947-1961)
  • Wilhelm Röpke (1961-1962)
  • John Jewkes (1962-1964)
  • Friedrich A. Lutz (1964-1967)
  • Bruno Leoni (1967-1968)
  • Günter Schmölders (1968-1970)
  • Milton Friedman (1970-1972)
  • Arthur Shenfield (1972-1974)
  • Gaston Leduc (1974-1976)
  • George Stigler (1976-1978)
  • Manuel Ayau (1978-1980)
  • Chiaki Nishiyama (1980-1982)
  • Ralph Harris, Baron Harris of High Cross (1982-1984)
  • James M. Buchanan (1984-1986)
  • Herbert Giersch (1986-1988)
  • Antonio Martino (1988-1990)
  • Gary Becker (1990-1992)
  • Max Hartwell (1992-1994)
  • Pascal Salin (1994-1996)
  • Edwin Feulner (1996-1998)
  • Ramon P. Diaz (1998-2000)
  • Christian Watrin (2000-2002)
  • Leonard Liggio (2002-2004)
  • Victoria Curzon -Price (2004-2006)
  • Greg Lindsay (2006-2008)
  • Deepak Lal (2008-2010)
  • Kenneth Minogue (2010-2012)
  • Allan Meltzer (2012-2014)

Networking

For the historian Anselm Doering - Manteuffel and Lutz Raphael the Mont Pelerin Society, together with the Institute of Economic Affairs the "core of a network pronociert anti-socialist and sometimes radically liberal economic and social theorist ". These think tanks had acted as " influential agencies for the dissemination of radical free-market ideology of freedom, Hayek's " and the economic theories of Milton Friedman after 1970. D. Plehwe and B. Walpen give a list of 93 think tanks in direct relation to MPS members, it being understood under " direct relationship " that at least one MPS member in an official function is active or / and the think - tank has (co-) founded. For the German-speaking area are:

Germany

  • Action Community Social Market Economy
  • Market Economy Foundation
  • Friedrich A. von Hayek Society
  • Friedrich Naumann Foundation
  • Walter Eucken Institute

Switzerland

  • Graduate Institute of International Studies
  • The Liberal Institute
  • Swiss Institute for International Studies

Austria

  • Friedrich A. von Hayek Institute

Reception and criticism

The Sunday Times described the Mont Pelerin Society as " the most influential, though little known think tank the second half of the 20th century. " ( "The most influential, but little- known think tank of the second half of the 20th century ").

The Marxist social researcher Bernhard Walpen sees the Mont Pelerin Society, a " hegemonic project". The wide- set goal of MPS consists Hayek to contribute to the enforcement of liberalism as the dominant principle of social organization. For this purpose it is necessary to use a "consistent belief " ( Hayek ) to develop of liberalism. Friedrich August von Hayek was assumed that political decisions would be taken away only on elections in a democracy. The direction is determined by the dominant intellectual currents which could build its visibility as journalists and teachers. The producers of the theories are the "Original Thinkers ", while the " Second Hand Dealers " could be the results of the production of ideology in society to take effect. The role of " Second Hand Dealers " located Hayek to the think-tanks.

At its meeting in Prague in 2012 marked the political scientist Jürgen Nordmann in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, the breadth of their political positioning as follows: "Who knows the Mont Pelerin Society ( MPS), the one for the grail of freedom, the other non- insiders the ideological North Korea of global capitalism with? "

Liberty Friedrich Lutz (economist) Allan H. Meltzer Liberales Institut Sven Giegold Integrated Authority File
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