As Friedrich Hayek insisted in his opening address to the very first meeting of the Mont Pèlerin Society on April 1, 1947, “Common work on the more detailed outline of a liberal order is practicable only among a group of people who are in agreement on fundamentals, and among whom certain basic principles are not questioned at every step.” There were struggles and even purges along the way (e.g., Hartwell 1995, chapter 5), but that should not disguise the fact that Mont Pèlerin did eventually forge agreement on some fundamentals. Indeed, we can and should come to appreciate the fact that the neoliberal project managed to converge over time on a shared political philosophy and worldview, despite the debates and struggles described in this volume.

Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, loc. 2076