Once upon a time, classical liberals were wary of monopoly as inherently inimical to democracy because in their view it undermined a necessary condition for democratic politics to flourish, namely, a competitive market. In the 1930s, Henry Simons, a respected University of Chicago professor and self-proclaimed classical liberal, described monopoly in all its forms—including large corporations—as “the great enemy of democracy.” As World War II drew to a close, however, the heirs to liberalism—both in Europe and the United States—worried that they needed to create a more robust liberal doctrine to prevent its demise and to stave off the looming threat of totalitarianism.

Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, loc. 1072