Ordoliberal Foundations of European Economic Policy: Myths and Reality

2021 ◽  
Vol 65 (4) ◽  
pp. 50-57
Author(s):  
D. Trubnikov
Keyword(s):  
Economic Policy ◽  
Dominant Role ◽  
Social Market Economy ◽  
Main Task ◽  
Managed Competition ◽  
The European Union ◽  
European Economic ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Market ◽  
Political Economic

Received 20.09.2020. The theme of the role and place of ordoliberal views in contemporary European economic policy has attracted attention of many researchers. While some scholars raise their concerns about the ongoing ordoliberalization of Europe and criticize the ordoliberal foundations of the European Union, the others call for the restoration of the ordoliberal principles in economic policy and argue about the necessity of ordoliberal reforms. This article is focused on this discussion and aims to assess the various arguments that use the ordoliberal issue to justify their positions. The analysis leads to the conclusion that this discussion very often faces misinterpretations of the main outlook of the ordoliberal theory, what can be explained by the dominant role of Germany in the European political scene, complexity of the relationship between ordoliberalism and the social market economy model, as well as by political, economic and ideological motives. For ordoliberals, the main task for the state was to create and maintain a competitive order that will allow market forces to distribute the wealth according to merits and will result in what can be called achievement of social justice. Meanwhile, it has become apparent that European policymakers have noticeably eschewed the competitive order proposals, and modern arrangements of the European economy might be better characterized in terms of regulatory capitalism and managed competition. Moreover, it can be argued that the raising concentration of economic power makes the appeals for the return to the ordoliberal principles very reasonable. The Freiburg school ideas continue to be a real alternative not only to the neoclassical mainstream, but also to the socialist wishes to control and direct economic and social processes.

scholarly journals Economic policy supporting social well-being. Remarks on the margin of Ludwig Erhard’s book “Prosperity for All”

2020 ◽  
pp. 27-37
Author(s):  
Marcin Łuszczyk
Keyword(s):  
Economic Policy ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
Market Economy ◽  
Ad Hoc ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Social Market Economy ◽  
World War ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Market ◽  
Original Concept

The purpose of the article is to present the achievements of Ludwig Erhard in the field of economic policy and his vision of social well-being. Immediately after World War II, Erhard was the main author of Germany’s economic policy. Based on the principles of ordoliberalism, the social market economy became the source of economic success. Under the Constitution, also in Poland the social market economy forms the basis of the economic system. However, it turns out that the actions taken differ significantly from Erhard’s original concept, and sometimes even close to the model of the socialist economic order. The state’s interference in market processes is growing, ad hoc decisions are more and more often made, calculated more to improve the current situation than to ensure lasting prosperity.

scholarly journals Ordolieral Roots of Ecological Market Economy

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 115-129
Author(s):  
Martin Dahl
Keyword(s):  
Economic Policy ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
Market Economy ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Social Market Economy ◽  
New Concepts ◽  
The Social ◽  
Ecological Development ◽  
Western Germany ◽  
Social Market

AbstractWestern Germany introduced the model of a Social Market Economy after World War II. This model has become an example of socio-economic reforms for many European countries. In the initial phase of the development of the new socio-economic policy concept, the postulate of "prosperity for all" was especially appealing as it considers economic policy and social policy as a whole. In subsequent years of development, particularly at the end of the twentieth century, the model of a Social Market Economy has become a source of foundation for creating new concepts and ideas that would include more aspects of responsible and sustainable development combined with proper care for resources and the natural environment. In the view of this, the aim of this paper is to attempt to answer the question of to what extent the Social Market Economy model can lay the foundation for sustainable, responsible and ecological development. In order to be able to answer such a research question, the author based his reasoning and analyses on the theory of ordoliberalism and the following research methods: factual analysis, comparative analysis and analysis of selected publications. The main findings of the research are that the concept of Social Market Economy contains numerous elements that can foster the implementation of the sustainable, responsible and ecological development of countries and societies.

Ordoliberalism, the Social-Market Economy, and Keynesianism in Germany, 1945–1974

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harald Hagemann
Keyword(s):  
Economic Policy ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
Market Economy ◽  
German Economy ◽  
Social Market Economy ◽  
West German Economy ◽  
Federal Republic Of Germany ◽  
Social Democrats ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Market

The chapter deals with the development of the welfare state in the first three decades after World War II, in which the West German economy ran through a remarkable catching-up process. Economic policy in the new Federal Republic of Germany in that period was decisively shaped and influenced by the ordoliberal ideas of Walter Eucken and the Freiburg school and the principles of the social-market economy. Whereas Keynesianism of the Hicks-Samuelson neoclassical synthesis had already evolved into the dominant view in the academic sphere during the 1950s, it took until the 1966–67 recession for Keynesianism to find a late (and short) entry into German economic policy with the entry of the Social Democrats into government and their charismatic minister of economics, Karl Schiller.

Christian Economics?

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Noah Benezra Strote
Keyword(s):  
Economic Policy ◽  
Market Economy ◽  
Economic Situation ◽  
Social Market Economy ◽  
Party Affiliation ◽  
Christian Democratic Union ◽  
The Social ◽  
Way Of Thinking ◽  
Christian Social Union ◽  
Social Market

This chapter explores how German elites molded a bare majority to support a “Christian” policy to respond to the dire economic situation still facing the country, under the leadership of the first post-Nazi chancellor, Konrad Adenauer. The first advocates of the “social market economy” argued that the policies underpinning it reflected “our Christian way of thinking”: principles ultimately rooted in Christian scripture. Their party affiliation was either the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) or the Christian Social Union (CSU), whose leaderships ran their campaigns in conjunction with each other and together formed a bloc (CDU/CSU) in national legislative bodies. The last time German politicians had attempted to forge an interconfessional “Christian” economic policy, Protestant liberals and Catholics had infamously failed in their charge. Twenty years later, however, the attempts met with more success.

scholarly journals Economic Constitution of the European Union, before and after Lisbon (between the principle of Competition and the “Social Market Economy”)

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 114-129
Author(s):  
Pedro Madeira Froufe
Keyword(s):  
European Integration ◽  
Market Economy ◽  
Internal Market ◽  
Social Market Economy ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Economic Constitution ◽  
The Social ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Social Market ◽  
The Eu

This paper registers some notes and interrogations concerning the express legal enshrinement of the concept of Social Market Economy. It highlights the ordoliberal origin of this concept and questions its meaning – associated with a certain loss of intensity from the clear proclamation of the principle of Competition – in terms of the economic ordination of the Internal Market and European integration. However, the question to be asked brings us back to the effective and contextualised characterisation in the current moment of European integration – the economic Constitution of the EU. Will there be, then, a change of the ideological referential in the economic constitution of the EU and, consequently, in the paths that are intended to be trailed in the future? Or, instead, is the emergence of the express enshrinement in the Treaty of the “Social MarketEconomy” not indicative of a shift of perspective (sense of direction) of the economy in the Internal Market, but only an evolution in continuance?

scholarly journals Regulating labour platforms, the data deficit

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adrian John Hawley
Keyword(s):  
Smart Phone ◽  
Safety Net ◽  
Social Market Economy ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Work Related ◽  
Gig Economy ◽  
The Social ◽  
Share Data ◽  
Access To Data ◽  
Social Market

It is widely reported that there is a data deficit regarding working conditions in the gig economy. It is known, however, that workers are disadvantaged because they are not classed as employees with the result that they lack work-related entitlements and may not be protected by the social welfare safety net. Nor is this compatible with the social market economy enshrined in the European Union treaties. Two obstacles are that labour law and social policy are mainly a national competence and that platforms are reluctant to share data with regulators. In this paper I take the specific case of offline labour platforms intermediated by app and smart phone such as driving and delivering and look for new pathways between access to data and the shaping of public policy in member states with potentially legal certainty.

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