Walter Lippmann Colloquium

Paris,France

 Walter Lippmann Colloquium link

Date	26 August 1938 - 28 August 1938
Location	Paris,France
Description	Twenty-six of the most prominent liberal thinkers attended this a 1938 conference. The aim was to construct a new liberalism as a rejection of collectivism, socialism and laissez-faire liberalism.
Perpetrators	Louis Rougier
Participants	Raymond Aron,Roger Auboin,Louis Baudin,Marcel Bourgeois,José Castillejo,John Bell Condliffe,Auguste Detœuf,Friedrich Hayek,Michael Angelo Heilperin,Bruce Hopper,Bernard Lavergne,Walter Lippmann,Etienne Mantoux,Robert Marjolin,Louis Marlio,Ernest Mercier,Ludwig von Mises,André Piatier,Michaël Polanyi,Stefan T. Possony,Wilhelm Röpke,Jacques Rueff,Alexander Rüstow,Alfred Schütz,Marcel van Zeeland

The Walter Lippmann Colloquium' (French: Colloque Walter Lippmann) was a meeting of intellectuals and academics that took place in Paris from August 26 to 30, 1938. The American publicist Walter Lippmann (1889–1974) gave the name, and with his work The Good Society, which had been published shortly before, served as the cue for the discussion. Lippmann was on a European tour and attended the meeting at the Institut International de Coopération Intellectuelle at the invitation of the French philosopher Louis Rougier.

In addition to Lippmann and Rougier, numerous representatives of liberal tendencies from Europe and the USA were present who, in view of the economic and political crises in the interwar period, were concerned about the state and continued existence of liberalism as a guiding principle and social system. Those present struggled together to find answers to questions such as unemployment, the rise of totalitarian systems (e.g. in Germany or the Soviet Union) and the appropriate role and opportunities for the state and the markets in shaping public life.

The participants at the meeting disagreed on many points, not least on the name that should be given to their renewed liberal program. As a compromise, the term neoliberalism was ultimately chosen, with the notes from the Colloquium documenting one of the earliest uses of this term.

In 1947, 15 participants in the colloquium founded the Mont Pèlerin Society (MPS) with others in order to convince future generations of economically liberal ideas. In the decades after, the MPS functions as the central hub of neoliberal networks.