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==Controversies== ==Controversies==
] and ] note that it is no surprise that so many Mont Pelerin Members have won a ], because the Mont Pelerin Society helped to create that award, specifically to legitimize free-market economic thinking.<ref name="MaxtonRanders2016">], ] (2016). ''''. ]. {{ISBN|978-1771642521|978-1771642521}}. p. 77.</ref> ] and ] note that it is no surprise that so many Mont Pelerin Members have won a "]"<ref</del> <del>name="quotation</del> <del>marks">For</del> <del>the quotation marks: ]<del>. '' A Beautiful Mind]''. Faber & Faber; 15 November 2012. ]]]&nbsp;]]]. p. 489, 490.</ref></del>, because the Mont Pelerin Society helped to create <del>what</del> <del>is officially the ]]]</del>, specifically to legitimize free-market economic thinking.<ref name="MaxtonRanders2016">''''. Greystone Books; 8 October 2016. ]&nbsp;]. p. 77.</ref>


==Past presidents== ==Past presidents==

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Mont Pelerin Society
AbbreviationMPS
Formation1947; 78 years ago (1947)
TypeEconomic policy think tank
PresidentPedro Schwartz Giron
Revenue$165,781 (2015)
Expenses$113,886 (2015)
Websitewww.montpelerin.org

The Mont Pelerin Society (MPS) is an international neoliberal organization composed of economists, philosophers, historians, intellectuals, business leaders. The members see the Society as an effort to interpret in modern terms the fundamental principles of economic society as expressed by classical Western economists, political scientists, and philosophers. Its founders included Friedrich Hayek, Frank Knight, Karl Popper, Ludwig von Mises, George Stigler, and Milton Friedman. The society advocates freedom of expression, free market economic policies, the political values of an open society.

Aims

In its "Statement of Aims", 8 April 1947, the scholars were worried about the dangers faced by civilization.

Over large stretches of the Earth’s surface the essential conditions of human dignity and freedom have already disappeared. In others they are under constant menace from the development of current tendencies of policy. The position of the individual and the voluntary group are progressively undermined by extensions of arbitrary power. Even that most precious possession of Western Man, freedom of thought and expression, is threatened by the spread of creeds which, claiming the privilege of tolerance when in the position of a minority, seek only to establish a position of power in which they can suppress and obliterate all views but their own.

The group also stated that it is "difficult to imagine a society in which freedom may be effectively preserved" without the "diffused power and initiative" associated with "private property and the competitive market", and found it desirable inter alia to study the following matters:

  1. "The analysis and exploration of the nature of the present crisis so as to bring home to others its essential moral and economic origins.
  2. The redefinition of the functions of the state so as to distinguish more clearly between the totalitarian and the liberal order.
  3. Methods of re-establishing the rule of law and of assuring its development in such manner that individuals and groups are not in a position to encroach upon the freedom of others and private rights are not allowed to become a basis of predatory power.
  4. The possibility of establishing minimum standards by means not inimical to initiative and functioning of the market.
  5. Methods of combating the misuse of history for the furtherance of creeds hostile to liberty.
  6. The problem of the creation of an international order conducive to the safeguarding of peace and liberty and permitting the establishment of harmonious international economic relations."

The group "seeks to establish no meticulous and hampering orthodoxy", "conduct propaganda" or align with some party. It aims to facilitate "the exchange of views – to contribute to the preservation and improvement of the free society.

Name

The Mont Pelerin Society was created on 10 April 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 would be connected with the society, the decision was made to name it after Mont Pèlerin, the Swiss resort where it convened.

History

In 1947, 39 scholars, mostly economists, with some historians and philosophers, were invited by Friedrich Hayek to meet to discuss the state, and possible fate of classical liberalism, his goal being an organization which would resist interventionism and promote his conception of classical liberalism. He wanted to discuss how to combat the "state ascendancy and Marxist or Keynesian planning sweeping the globe". The first meeting took place in the Hotel du Parc in the Swiss village of Mont Pèlerin, near the city of Vevey, Switzerland. Funding for the conference came from various sources including the William Volker Fund thanks to Harold Luhnow and the Bank of England owing to the help of Alfred Suenson-Taylor. William Rappard, a Swiss academic, diplomat and founder of the Graduate Institute of International Studies, addressed the society's inaugural meeting. In his "Opening Address to a Conference at Mont Pelerin", Hayek mentioned "two men with whom I had most fully discussed the plan for this meeting both have not lived to see its realisation": Henry Simons (who trained Milton Friedman, a future president of the society, at the University of Chicago) and Sir John Clapham, a British economic historian.

The Mont Pelerin Society aimed to "facilitate an exchange of ideas between like-minded scholars in the hope of strengthening the principles and practice of a free society and to study the workings, virtues, and defects of market-oriented economic systems." The Society has continued to meet regularly, the General Meeting every two years and the regional meetings annually. The current president of the Society is Pedro Schwartz Giron. It has close ties to the network of think tanks sponsored in part by the Atlas Economic Research Foundation.

Influence

Hayek stressed that the society was to be a scholarly community arguing against collectivism, while not engaging in public relations or propaganda. The society has become part of an international think-tank movement; Hayek used it as a forum to encourage members such as Antony Fisher to pursue the think-tank route. Fisher has established the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) in London during 1955; the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research in New York City in 1977; and the Atlas Economic Research Foundation, in 1981. Now known as the Atlas Network, they support a wide network of think-tanks, including the Fraser Institute.

Prominent MPS members who advanced to policy positions included the late Chancellor Ludwig Erhard of West Germany, President Luigi Einaudi of Italy, Chairman Arthur F. Burns of the U.S. Federal Reserve Board, and U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz. Among prominent contemporary political figures, former President Václav Klaus of the Czech Republic and acting politicians, such as Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe of Sri Lanka, former Foreign Secretary Sir Geoffrey Howe of the U.K., former Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister of Defence Antonio Martino, Chilean Finance Minister Carlos Cáceres, and former New Zealand Finance Minister Ruth Richardson, are all MPS members. Of 76 economic advisers on Ronald Reagan's 1980 campaign staff, 22 were MPS members.

Several leading journalists, including Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Walter Lippmann, former radical Max Eastman (then roving editor at Reader's Digest), John Chamberlain (former editorial writer for Life magazine), Henry Hazlitt (former financial editor of The New York Times and columnist for Newsweek), and Felix Morley (Pulitzer Prize-winning editor at The Washington Post), have also been members. Members of the society have also been well represented on the Committee for the Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel.

Eight MPS members, F. A. Hayek, Milton Friedman, George Stigler, Maurice Allais, James M. Buchanan, Ronald Coase, Gary S. Becker and Vernon Smith have won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences.

In the 2014 Global Go To Think Tank Index Report (Think Tanks and Civil Societies Program, University of Pennsylvania), MPS is noted as having the 9th (out of 55) "Best Think Tank Conference".

Controversies

Graeme Maxton and Jorgen Randers note that it is no surprise that so many Mont Pelerin Members have won a "]"<ref name="quotation marks">For the quotation marks: ]. . Faber & Faber; 15 November 2012. ] ]. p. 489, 490.</ref>, because the Mont Pelerin Society helped to create what is officially the ], specifically to legitimize free-market economic thinking.

Past presidents

Numerous notable economists have served as president of MPS:

Notable participants

Board of Directors 2008–10

Other noted members

References

  1. ^ "The Mont Pelerin Society" (PDF). Foundation Center. 25 August 2016. Retrieved 30 May 2017.
  2. Mirowski 2009.
  3. ^ Michael Novak, 'The Moral Imperative of a Free Economy', in The 4% Solution: Unleashing the Economic Growth America Needs, Bush Institute, Crown Business, 2012, p. 294
  4. ^ Statement of Aims, MPS
  5. Baird, Charles (2008). "Mont Pelerin Society". In Hamowy, Ronald (ed.). The Encyclopedia of Libertarianism. The Encyclopedia of Libertarianism. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE; Cato Institute. pp. 342–43. doi:10.4135/9781412965811.n210. ISBN 978-1412965804. LCCN 2008009151. OCLC 750831024.
  6. Birch, Kean (2017). A Research Agenda for Neoliberalism. Edward Elgar Publishing. ISBN 978-1786433596. Retrieved 6 January 2018.
  7. Shaxson, Nicholas (2011). Treasure islands : tax havens and the men who stole the world. London: Bodley Head. ISBN 978-1847921109. {{cite book}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  8. F. A. Hayek, The Fortunes of Liberalism: Essays on Austrian Economics and the Ideal of Freedom (1992)
  9. Offer, Avner; Söderberg, Gabriel (2016). The Nobel Factor: The Prize in Economics, Social Democracy, and the Market Turn (1st ed.). Princeton University Press. pp. 104–05. {{cite book}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  10. Contemporary Authors, New Revision Series. Gale. 2004. Retrieved 25 May 2013 – via HighBeam Research.
  11. James G. McGann (Director) (4 February 2015). "2014 Global Go To Think Tank Index Report". Retrieved 14 February 2015.
  12. Reinventing Prosperity: Managing Economic Growth to Reduce Unemployment, Inequality and Climate Change. Greystone Books; 8 October 2016. ISBN 978-1-77164-252-1. p. 77.
  13. List of presidents, The Mont Pelerin Society website
  14. Lutz was a professor at the University of Zurich in Switzerland during the time he was president.
  15. Contemporary Authors, New Revision Series. Gale. 2008. Retrieved 25 May 2013 – via HighBeam Research.
  16. https://ppe.mercatus.org/features/mont-pelerin-society-elects-peter-boettke-2016-2018-president
  17. ^ "Mont Pelerin Society Directory" (PDF). DeSmogBlog. Retrieved 28 January 2014.
  18. Hopper, D. Ian (30 June 2013). "Judges Failed to Disclose Junkets". Associated Press. Archived from the original on 25 May 2013. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  19. "Meet Our Experts". Retrieved 2 September 2016.
  20. Contemporary Authors, New Revision Series. Gale. 2009. Retrieved 25 May 2013 – via HighBeam Research.
  21. Contemporary Authors, New Revision Series. Gale. 2009. Retrieved 25 May 2013 – via HighBeam Research.
  22. Contemporary Authors. Gale. 2004. Retrieved 25 May 2013 – via HighBeam Research.
  23. Mirowski 2009, p. 192.
  24. Contemporary Authors, New Revision Series. Gale. 2009. Retrieved 25 May 2013 – via HighBeam Research.
  25. Churchill Archives Centre: The papers of Enoch Powell, file POLL 1/1/20.
  26. "Economist Richard Rahn: Bulgaria Will Survive Financial Crisis". Sofia News Agency (Novinite Ltd). 11 November 2011. Retrieved 25 May 2013 – via HighBeam Research.
  27. https://www.forbes.com/sites/alejandrochafuen/2014/03/26/away-from-socialism-mario-vargas-llosa-joins-the-mont-pelerin-society/#76481b024366

See also

Further reading

External links

Categories: