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Rev Austrian Econ (2015) 28:261309
DOI 10.1007/s11138-014-0290-8
Bruce Caldwell & Leonidas Montes
Published online: 26 September 2014# Springer Science+Business Media New York 2014
Abstract F. A. Hayek took two trips to Chile, the first in 1977, the second in 1981. The visits were controversial. On the first trip he met with General Augusto Pinochet, who had led a coup that overthrew Salvador Allende in 1973. During his 1981 visit, Hayek gave interviews that were published in the Chilean newspaper El Mercurio and in which he discussed authoritarian regimes and the problem of unlimited democracy. After each trip, he complained that the western press had painted an unfair picture of the economic situation under the Pinochet regime. Drawing on archival material, interviews, and past research, we provide a full account of this controversial episode in Hayeks life.
Keywords F. A. Hayek . Chile . Chicago boys . Augusto Pinochet . Salvador Allende . Milton Friedman . Centro de Estudios Pblicos (CEP) . El Mercurio
1 Introduction
Friedrich A. Hayek visited Chile twice, once in November 1977, and again in April 1981, both visits taking place while General Augusto Pinochet was President. On the first trip, in addition to receiving an honorary degree, giving talks and interviews, attending dinners and the like, Hayek had about a twenty minute audience with Pinochet. Over the course of the next year Hayek wrote
An earlier version of this paper was presented at a Center for the History of Political Economy workshop at Duke University, then at the 2014 History of Economics Society Meeting in Montreal. We are very grateful for comments by Robert Barros, Renato Cristi, Jose Daz, Andrew Farrant, Joaqun Fermandois, Alejandro Foxley, Alexander Galetovic and Jos Zalaquett. Of course, the usual caveats apply. We also thank Carlos Cceres, Jorge Cauas, Adolfo Ibez S. M. and Rolf Luders for providing important information for this paper.
B. Caldwell (*)
Department of Economics, Duke University, Box 90097, Durham, NC 27708, USA e-mail: [email protected]
L. Montes
Escuela de Gobierno, Universidad Adolfo Ibez, Santiago, Chile e-mail: [email protected]
Friedrich Hayek and his visits to Chile
262 B. Caldwell, L. Montes
about his visit to Chile, once in a journal called Politische Studien, then in letters published in The Times of London, decrying the...