Colloque Walter Lippmann
The Walter Lippmann Colloquium (French: Colloque Walter Lippmann), was a conference of intellectuals organized in Paris in August 1938 by French philosopher Louis Rougier.[1] After interest in classical liberalism had declined in the 1920s and 1930s, the aim was to construct a new liberalism as a rejection of collectivism, socialism and laissez-faire liberalism.[2] At the meeting, the term neoliberalism was coined by Alexander Rüstow referring to the rejection of the (old) laissez-faire liberalism.[2]
Namesake
The colloquium was named after American journalist Walter Lippmann. Lippman's 1937 book An Enquiry into the Principles of the Good Society had been translated into French as La Cité libre and was studied in detail at the meeting.
Importance
Twenty-six intellectuals, including some of the most prominent liberal thinkers, took part. The participants chose to set up an organization to promote liberalism which was called the Comité international d'étude pour le renouveau du libéralisme (CIERL). Though CIERL had few consequences because of the war, it inspired Friedrich Hayek in the postwar creation of the Mont Pelerin Society.
Michel Foucault's 1978–1979 Collège de France lectures, published a quarter of a century later as The Birth of Biopolitics, drew attention to the importance of the Walter Lippmann Colloquium.[3]
Participants
Participants of the Colloquium included:[3]
- Raymond Aron, French philosopher, sociologist, journalist and political scientist
- Friedrich Hayek, Austrian and British economist and philosopher
- Walter Lippmann, American writer, reporter and political commentator
- Robert Marjolin, French economist and politician
- Ernest Mercier, French industrialist
- Ludwig von Mises, Austro-Hungarian born economist
- Michael Polanyi, Hungarian-British polymath
- Wilhelm Röpke, German economist
- Louis Rougier, French philosopher
- Jacques Rueff, French economist
- Alexander Rüstow, German sociologist and economist
Walter Eucken was invited to the colloqium, but he was not given permission to leave Germany.
References
- ^ Denord, François (2009). "French Neoliberalism and its Divisions: From the Colloque Walter Lippmann to the Fifth Republic". In Philip Mirowski and Dieter Plehwe (ed.). The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making of the Neoliberal Thought Collective. Harvard University Press. pp. 45–67. ISBN 978-0-674-03318-4. Retrieved 22 August 2012.
- ^ a b Plehwe, Dieter (2009). "Introduction". In Philip Mirowski and Dieter Plehwe (ed.). The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making of the Neoliberal Thought Collective. Harvard University Press. p. 13. ISBN 978-0-674-03318-4. Retrieved 22 August 2012.
- ^ a b Foucault, Michel (2010). The Birth of Biopolitics: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1978–1979. tr, Graham Burchell. Picador. pp. 132–3, 151–2. ISBN 978-0-312-20341-2. Retrieved 22 August 2012.