History
In 1947, 39 scholars, mostly economists, with some historians and philosophers, were invited by Professor Friedrich Hayek to meet to discuss the state, and possible fate of classical liberalism and to combat the “state ascendancy and Marxist or Keynesian planning sweeping the globe”. The first meeting took place in the Hotel du Parc in the Swiss village of Mont Pelerin (Mont-Pèlerin), near the city of Vevey, Switzerland. In his "Opening Address to a Conference at Mont Pelerin" Hayek mentioned "two men with whom I had most fully discussed the plan for this meeting both have not lived to see its realisation": Henry Simons (who trained Milton Friedman, a future president of the society, at the University of Chicago) and Sir John Clapham, a senior official of the Bank of England who from 1940–6 was the president of the British Royal Society.
The resulting Mont Pelerin Society aimed to “facilitate an exchange of ideas between like-minded scholars in the hope of strengthening the principles and practice of a free society and to study the workings, virtues, and defects of market-oriented economic systems.”
The Society has continued to meet on a regular basis, the General Meeting every two years and the regional meetings annually. The current president of the Society is Kenneth Minogue.
It has close ties to the network of think tanks sponsored in part by the Atlas Economic Research Foundation.
Read more about this topic: Mont Pelerin Society
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