The Mont Pelerin Society and the Origins of Neoliberalism with Ola Innset, Episode 17

Guest: Ola InnsetHosted and produced by Erwin Dekker and Reinhard Schumacher







In this episode we interview the historian Ola Innset about his award-winning dissertation Reinventing liberalism : Early neoliberalism in context, 1920-1947. He has used the methodology of micro-history to study the first meeting of the Mont Pelerin Society in 1947, including 'juicy' details. We discuss Ola's thesis of the double movement: neoliberalism as response to both planning and the old ideal of laissez-faire. But the conversation turns much broader about the international character of neoliberalism, the uses and abuses of the term, as well as its contemporary relevance. And we discuss other recent literature on neoliberalism including that of Quinn Slobodian and Peter Boettke.



In a piece for the Baffler Ola has described his own visit to the Mont Pelerin Hotel where the conference took place.In a spin-off article has has explored the relations between Friedrich Hayek and Karl (!) Polanyi, which contains a continuation of the discussion about economic calculation in the podcast.