Freedom and the Strong State: On German Ordoliberalism

Ordoliberalism is the theory behind the German social market economy. Its theoretical stance developed in the context of the economic crisis and political turmoil of the Weimar Republic in the late 1920s. It is premised on the strong state as the locus of liberal governance, and holds that economic...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:New political economy 2012-11, Vol.17 (5), p.633-656
Main Author: Bonefeld, Werner
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Authoritarianism
Class
Economic Crises
Economic crisis
Economic history
enterprise
Enterprises
Ethics
free economy
Free markets
Freedom
freedom and authority
Germany
Governance
liberal interventionism
Markets
Neoliberalism
ordoliberalism
Political Economy
social market economy
Social Policy
strong state
Studies
Weimar Republic
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Summary:Ordoliberalism is the theory behind the German social market economy. Its theoretical stance developed in the context of the economic crisis and political turmoil of the Weimar Republic in the late 1920s. It is premised on the strong state as the locus of liberal governance, and holds that economic freedom derives from political authority. In the context of the crisis of neoliberal political economy and austerity, and debates about the resurgence of the state vis-à-vis the economy, the article introduces the ordoliberal argument that the free economy presupposes the exercise of strong state authority, and that economic liberty is a practice of liberal governance. This practice is fundamentally one of social policy to secure the sociological and ethical preconditions of free markets. The study of ordoliberalism brings to the fore a tradition of a state-centric neoliberalism, one that says that economic freedom is ordered freedom, one that argues that the strong state is the political form of free markets, and one that conceives of competition and enterprise as a political task.
ISSN:1356-3467
1469-9923
DOI:10.1080/13563467.2012.656082