Books

Abstract | Today, ordoliberalism is at the center of the ongoing debate about the foundations, the present governance, and future prospects of the European Union—and yet we do not dispose of a comprehensive definition of it. Whenever we talk of the dominance of the German model, the discussion should involve a detailed picture of ordoliberal principles. This book retraces the intellectual history of ordoliberalism, focusing in particular on the works of its main representatives Walter Eucken and Wilhelm Röpke, together with references to the contributions of Franz Böhm, Alexander Rüstow, Leonhard Miksch, and Friedrich Lutz. The book highlights the crucial, albeit overlooked, role of economic and political power in the making of ordoliberal thought. More precisely, the book shows that ordoliberalism, in its ideological, epistemological, theoretical, and political components, can be defined as a political economy of power; that is, as a form of economic knowledge whose primary objective is to analyze the sources, action, and impact of power within society. By doing so, the book will offer a new perspective on ordoliberals’ key concepts built in the interwar period while contextualizing them within a broader intellectual project.

Abstract | Walter Eucken (1891-1940) was a central figure of German Ordoliberalism. In May 1948 he published a seminal paper named “The political problem about Ordo” in the German Journal Ordojahrbuch. Questioning both the Marxist and the Historicist analyses of capitalism, he built new foundations for political economy. The concept of Ordo is an epistemological convenient tool for analyzing different types of interactions between politics and economics. It also aims at developing an ideal organization of the whole society. In Eucken’s ideal political order, the main role of the State is to create, then to maintain the institutional framework for a well-functioning competitive market which is supposed to be the best way to guarantee individual freedom. This book provides a long introduction to Eucken’s paper of 1948 which has been translated in French by the authors. The genesis and development of Walter Eucken’s political and economic thought has been outlined, at the crossroads between political economy, philosophy, law and history. This book is for political economists interested in reflecting upon new links between Politics and Economy but also for those who might be interested to know more about the very roots of the German Social Market Economy.