Bitter internal factionalism nearly destroyed the Mont Pèlerin Society.

Evidence

During the 1961 meeting in Turin, it became evident that the tensions within the society were unsustainable. Hunold and his American detractors engaged in an aggressive dispute about the location of the next meeting that several times inspired Röpke, when an unfavorable vote appeared imminent, to halt the proceedings with the claim that the tenor of the discussion was dangerous for his weak heart. Friedman intensifi ed the acrimony later in the meeting with a claim that Hunold had reordered the list of vice presidents to position himself, under the terms of an obscure bylaw, to become president in the event of Röpke’s resignation. It was, Friedman later wrote, “an attempted coup d’etat” that was intended to bestow the presidency on Hunold by underhanded means. The debate was resolved in Friedman’s favor, and Hunold exploded with rage; one unsympathetic member later recounted that Hunold had described the members of the society’s board as “rascals,” referred to Trygve Hoff as a “useful idiot,” declared Bruno Leoni to be “insincere as all the Italians,” and told Friedman and Machlup to “go home ugly Americans.” Friedman displayed similar vitriol in the days that followed. Hunold, he wrote, “engineered this monstrous attempted fraud” with the intention of becoming “the chief benefi ciary of it,” demonstrating a “Machiavellianism” that Friedman had made the “fatal mistake” of underestimating. Two months later Hunold’s principal adversaries, including Friedman, Stigler, Machlup, and Hayek, signed a letter indicating that the preservation of the society depended on Hunold’s resignation. — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion, 345

Categorization

• XREF: Complicates the standard narrative of the MPS as a coherent ideological vanguard advancing liberalism in lockstep; connects to the broader literature on how activist networks fracture internally. — connects to: Founding Mont Pèlerin members became alienated by the society’s later trajectory — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion: Reinventing Free…, 562; Röpke condemned the Mont Pèlerin Society’s internal power struggles in 1960s — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 2160; The Mont Pèlerin Society contained rival, incompatible conceptions of the market — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 2126 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Röpke condemned the Mont Pèlerin Society’s internal power struggles in 1960s #corroborates (0.92) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 2160
• Organizational power struggles shaped which factions of the Mont Pèlerin network rose #expands (0.88) — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion, 335
• The Mont Pèlerin Society contained rival, incompatible conceptions of the market #expands (0.85) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 2126
• Mont Pèlerin Society’s first decade failed to reconcile its competing scientific and ideological visions #complicates (0.82) — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 91
• Mont Pèlerin’s success in spreading market ideas fatally undermined its own moderated vision #expands (0.80) — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion, 468
• The Mont Pèlerin Society’s growth threatened its philosophical unity #expands (0.75) — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion, 325