Mont Pèlerin members silently accepted Pinochet’s authoritarian rule at the 1981 meeting

Evidence

The discussions at the 1981 MPS meeting in Pinochet’s Chile kept returning to the concept of freedom. Nevertheless, a critique of the lack of political freedom and democracy in Chile was notably absent from the contributions of MPS members Friedman, Tullock, Watrin, Frickhöffer, Hartwell, Irvine, and Shenfield, all of whom complimented Buchanan and Cáceres on the list of speakers (see CEP 1982). Frickhöffer (1982) affirmatively likened Pinochet’s efforts to the post–World War II German efforts to secure a social market economy under Ludwig Erhard. Milton Friedman recommended that other developing countries follow the Chilean example of economic reorganization without mentioning the touchy subject of authoritarian rule. — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 1589

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the broader historiographical literature on whether MPS endorsed authoritarian regimes (e.g. works on Friedman in Chile, and the question of ‘dictatorship’ in the liberal tradition). — connects to: Hayek and Friedman personally advised and legitimized the Pinochet dictatorship. — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market: Human Rights…, 305; Nobel-winning Chicago economists actively endorsed Pinochet’s dictatorship — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market: Human Rights…, 329; German scholars documented the Mont Pèlerin Society’s defense of Pinochet’s dictatorship. — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 1729 (+5 more)
• SEED: An angle on how the very intellectuals theorizing ‘liberty’ rationalized authoritarian government — could frame a piece on intellectual hypocrisy or the priority of economic over political freedom in the neoliberal tradition.

Broader Connections

• Even allied neoliberal media refused to publish Hayek’s defense of Pinochet #expands (0.90) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 1618
• Hayek directly legitimized Pinochet’s dictatorship as more liberal than unrestricted democracy. #expands (0.90) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 1592
• Hayek repeatedly praised Pinochet, Salazar, and Suharto’s dictatorships as liberty-preserving #expands (0.88) — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 363
• Hayek actively defended the Pinochet regime against human rights criticism. #corroborates (0.85) — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 304