Ordoliberal economic ideas became socially embedded through a welfare-state compromise

Evidence

As we elaborate below, these new institutions and the underlying ideas that served as the blueprints for them were bolted, after a brief period of internal struggle among postwar Christian Democrats, to the existing Bismarkian patriarchal welfare state to form what Alfred Müller-Armack called “the social market economy,” a “system of legal rules which can satisfy the general feeling of justice,” which would tie citizens to the economic constitution as they realized its benefits. As Ralf Ptak observed, despite their deep misgivings about the welfare compensation, ordoliberals keenly appreciated that the “stability and security [of] the working class was prerequisite to securing the market economy.” As a consequence, although the ordoliberals really did not want the economic constitution to be tied to a welfare state, circumstances and politics dictated otherwise: the market economy had to become social. — Mark Blyth, Austerity, 366

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines the social market economy as ordoliberal rules overlaying the Bismarckian welfare state, precisely locating where the market constitution and welfare state meet.
• XREF: Connects directly to Mattei and the broader austerity literature on the German path; also to the Bismarckian welfare-state lineage in modern conservative thought. — connects to: Adenauer-era economics aimed to dismantle the welfare state rather than build it — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 2516; Ordoliberalism’s political project depended on sustaining a socially conservative middle class — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 514; Meritocratic racelessness discourse accompanied the neoliberal retreat from the welfare state — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race: Reflections on…, 1739 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Ordoliberalism’s political project depended on sustaining a socially conservative middle class #expands (0.80) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 514
• Meritocratic racelessness discourse accompanied the neoliberal retreat from the welfare state #contradicts (0.75) — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race, 1739
• The social market economy label legitimized market reforms politically #expands (0.75) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 550