The culture of the meetings was one of open discussion without expectation of unanimity. Dialogue and contestation were expected. The fact that there was agreement on the new “Agenda of Liberalism” at the WLC actually surprised Louis Rougier, the WLC’s organizer, even if its substance was less than novel. The question of legitimate state intervention, in particular, had been mulled over many times before the WLC. At the ISC’s London meeting in 1933, for example, sessions dealt extensively with various “philosophical aspects of state intervention” as well as “practical aspects of state intervention.”

Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, loc. 371