Hayek and Röpke proposed rival institutional blueprints that combined into the MPS format.

Evidence

Hayek’s primary idea, as he articulated it to Lippmann, was to create an “international or ga ni za tion of liberal economists” that would center on “collaboration in some sort of international journal entirely devoted to the problems arising out of the rational construction of a ‘Good Society.’ ” Röpke, on the other hand, wanted “a thorough discussion of the main issues involved (the Agenda of Liberalism, its failures in the past, the larger so cio log i cal problems etc.).” He elaborated on his idea in a letter to Lippmann in the early fall: “I believe the next step should be to organise, in one form or another, a discussion among the few people in the world whose thoughts in these matters have reached the necessary degree of maturity.” He liked Hayek’s idea of “a special periodical or series of pamphlets,” but he worried “that an enterprise of this sort would lack the indispensable unity and direction without the personal touch and the thoroughgoing discussion which only a small conference could provide.” — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion, 170

Categorization

• XREF: The journal-vs-conference design tension foreshadows how MPS actually operated as discussion society rather than periodical. — connects to: Hayek founded MPS to build a worldview insulated from immediate policy pressures — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion: Reinventing Free…, 307

Broader Connections

• Hayek founded MPS to build a worldview insulated from immediate policy pressures #expands (0.75) — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion, 307