Without initially taking too much notice of each other, each of these authors tried to analyze the “crisis of capitalism” that had erupted since the late 1920s and announced a quest for a “new liberalism” (Rüstow 1932, 172). Their discussion focused on revision of liberal approaches to the state. The state was now newly identified as the momentous instrument needed to achieve the principles of a market economy. Despite significant differences in their analytical approach, all the authors were united in their effort to reject the common interpretation of the hitherto most severe crisis of the capitalist economy as proof of the failure of capitalism. However, they also regarded the world economic crisis as a wake-up call to search for a new theoretical and ideological justification for a free market economy, which all of them never doubted was the most effective economic system despite the Great Depression.

Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, loc. 523