The MPS constituted an early intellectual network of development economics

Evidence

An examination of Benham and Röpke’s contributions reveals the links between a number of scholars and writers in Europe and the United States found within the orbit of the Mont Pèlerin Society, including some of the much later well-known “counter-revolutionaries” (e.g., Haberler and Bauer) as early as 1951. Röpke refers almost exclusively to the work of neoliberals organized in the MPS: Frederic Benham, Peter Bauer, Herbert Frankel, and Henry Hazlitt, as well as John Jewkes and Gaston Leduc. While dismissing with disdain the antiagrarian “mentality” of Manoilesco and a few individuals advancing “socialist propaganda” (Röpke 1953, 85 and 70, respectively), advocates of industrialization and planning strategies mostly remained unnamed. These anonymous writers of international agency and task force reports were reprimanded with evidence presented from the neoliberal pool of individual scholars and practical “experts.” — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 1289

Categorization

• XREF: Shows the MPS network operating as an intellectual counter-public, echoing the Russian ‘circles’ and scholarly networks studied elsewhere. — connects to: Development economics entered the MPS agenda via Mises’s 1951 proposal — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 1272; Early MPS development economists prescribed agricultural export specialization over industrialization for poor countries — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 1280; The MPS network circulated unpublicized development thinking through journal publications — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 1283 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Development economics was a persistent MPS concern, not a marginal one #expands (0.85) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 1338
• Fieldwork-based development economists shaped MPS ranks and conservative policy #expands (0.80) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 1362