The Allende overthrow made multinational regulation intellectually respectable for development economists.

Evidence

Among the planks of the NIEO platform that Bhagwati considered most reasonable, and indeed necessary, was the regulation of multinational corporations. Concluding that “there is now clearly scope for a code of conduct on multinationals (MNCs) and their activities in developing countries,” he notes that “until now the developing countries that worried about the MNCs were considered to be somewhat bizarre, if not depraved and corrupted by socialist doctrines.” Referring to a series of events, including the dramatic overthrow of President Allende in Chile, Bhagwati goes on to note that “nothing works to cure one of illusions faster than to be proved naïve by unpleasant revelations. Thus the awareness seems to have grown in influential circles in both the developing and the developed countries that MNCs are a good thing but need to have their international conduct regulated by explicit codes and legal sanctions, including the extension of trust-busting legislation to internal operations in the social interest” (1977, 19–20). — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 1779

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to Klein’s Shock Doctrine lineage — the Allende coup as a turning point that changed legitimate discourse on corporate power, and to the broader history of Chile under Pinochet in Mont Pèlerin historiography. — connects to: A coup enabled economists to capture a whole state’s economic machinery — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 1576; Neoliberal intellectuals helped overthrow Allende before codifying any new-liberalism doctrine. — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 1545; Chile’s coup and Allende’s death sobered the UN’s Group of Experts on multinational corporations. — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 1830
• SEED: Angle: how a single dramatic political event (Allende’s fall) flipped professional consensus on MNC regulation — events as causal forces in the history of economic ideas.
• QUESTION: Did the Mont Pèlerin network’s pro-MNC stance harden specifically in response to the NIEO and Allende era, versus earlier positions?

Broader Connections

• Chile’s coup and Allende’s death sobered the UN’s Group of Experts on multinational corporations. #exemplifies (0.82) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 1830
• A coup enabled economists to capture a whole state’s economic machinery #expands (0.78) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 1576
• Neoliberal intellectuals helped overthrow Allende before codifying any new-liberalism doctrine. #qualifies (0.72) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 1545