Mont Pelerin Society
Encyclopedia : M : MO : MON : Mont Pelerin Society
The Mont Pelerin Society (MPS) is an international organization composed of economists, intellectuals, business leaders, and others who favour economic liberalism. The society advocates free market economic policies and the political values of an "open society." The Mont Pelerin Society was created on April 10, 1947 at a conference organized by Friedrich Hayek. Originally, it was to be named the Acton-Tocqueville Society. After Frank Knight protested against naming the group after two "Roman Catholic Aristocrats" and Ludwig von Mises expressed concern that the mistakes made by Acton and Tocqueville in their lifetimes would be connected with the society, the name of the Swiss resort where it convened was used instead.
History
In 1947, 39 scholars, mostly economists, with some historians and philosophers, were invited by Professor Friedrich Hayek to meet at Mont Pelerin, Switzerland, and discuss the state, and possible fate of classical liberalism.
The Mont Pelerin Society has continued to meet on a regular basis, usually in September. The current president of the Mont Pelerin Society is Victoria Curzon-Price.
List of participants
The original participants were
- Maurice Allais, French physicist and economist
- Carlo Antoni,
- Hans Barth,
- Karl Brandt, German-American agricultural economist
- Herbert Cornuelle
- John Davenport,
- Stanley Dennison,
- Aaron Director, professor at the University of Chicago Law School
- Walter Eucken, German economist, father of ordoliberalism
- Erick Eyck,
- Milton Friedman, American economist
- Harry Gideonse,
- Frank Graham,
- Friedrich Hayek, Austrian economist
- Henry Hazlitt, libertarian philosopher, economist and journalist
- Floyd Harper,
- Trygve Hoff,
- Albert Hunold,
- Carl Iversen,
- John Jewkes,
- Bertrand de Jouvenel, French philosopher and political economist
- Frank Knight, Chicago school economist
- Fritz Machlup, Austrian-American economist
- Henri de Lovinfosse,
- Loren Miller, civic reformer and libertarian activist
- Ludwig von Mises, economist
- Felix Morley,
- Michael Polanyi,
- Karl Popper, Austrian / British philosopher
- William Rappard, academic and diplomat
- Leonard Read, founder, Foundation for Economic Education
- George Révay,
- Lionel Robbins, British economist
- Wilhelm Röpke, social market economist
- George Joseph Stigler, U.S. economist
- Herbert Tingsten,
- François Trevoux,
- Orval Watts,
- Cicely Wedgwood.
Influence
Hayek stressed that the society was to be a scholarly community arguing against "collectivism", while not engaging in public relations or propaganda. However, the society has always been a focal point for the international capitalist think-tank movement: Hayek himself used it as a forum to encourage members such as Antony Fisher to pursue the think-tank route. Fisher went on the establish the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) in London during 1971, the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C. during 1973, and the Atlas Economic Research Foundation in 1981. In turn the Atlas Foundation supports a wide network of think-tanks, including the Fraser Institute and the Manhattan Institute for Public Policy Research.
Prominent MPS members who have advanced to policy positions include Chancellor Ludwig Erhard of West Germany, President Luigi Einaudi of Italy, Chairman Arthur F. Burns of the U.S. Federal Reserve Board, and President Václav Klaus of the Czech Republic. Eight MPS members, including F. A. Hayek, Milton Friedman, and George Stigler, won Nobel prizes in economics. Of 76 economic advisers on Ronald Reagan's 1980 campaign staff, 22 were MPS members.
See also
External links
- [Mont Pelerin Society], the official site
- Marc Haegeman, [The general meeting files of the Mont Pèlerin Society (1947-1998)]. 108pp pdf.
- William H. Peterson, [A History of the Mont Pelerin Society by R. M. Hartwell] (book review), The Freeman, Foundation for Economic Education, July 1996.
- Greg Kaza, [The Mont Pelerin Society’s 50th Anniversary], The Freeman, Foundation for Economic Education, June 1997.
- [Mont Pelerin Society] at SourceWatch
- This article uses content from the SourceWatch article on [Mont Pelerin Society] under the terms of the GFDL.
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.