A Chicago economist publicly justified military rule as curing Latin American ‘romanticism’

Evidence

For Harberger, who had spent decades overseeing the training of economics students from Latin America, this relationship between political and economic freedom was a ‘dilemma’. Latin Americans, he told the symposium, were beset by a ‘predilection to romanticism’, a ‘tremendous, incredible vulnerability to demagogy’ and a collective tendency towards ‘self-pity’. Military governments, he contended, were ‘best at leading them to think their way out of that, but it is a terrible dilemma for us as freedom-loving individuals’. If romanticism was a barrier to economic freedom, Harberger wondered, was it legitimate to use political repression to shatter it? — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 313

Categorization

• SHARE: For someone into the history of neoliberalism’s authoritarian entanglements — the Fraser Institute symposium where a Chicago economist openly mused about whether repression is legitimate.
• QUESTION: How did the audience at this 1986 Fraser Institute symposium respond to Harberger’s remarks? And is the full symposium proceedings available?
• XREF: Connects directly to debates about whether the Chicago School ‘merely advised’ or actively legitimized Pinochet; foreshadows later defenses that Friedman opposed the junta. — connects to: Chile’s Chicago economists justified the junta on freedom and rights grounds, not just economics — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market: Human Rights…, 308; Nobel-winning Chicago economists actively endorsed Pinochet’s dictatorship — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market: Human Rights…, 329

Broader Connections

• Nobel-winning Chicago economists actively endorsed Pinochet’s dictatorship #exemplifies (0.90) — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 329