Ordoliberalism’s coherence as a theory and its label both emerged only in the 1950s.

Evidence

Not until the 1950s can one speak of a more or less coherent theory and practice of “new” liberalism in Germany, expressed by the special relationship between ordoliberalism and the social market economy. Even the term ordoliberalism occurred for the first time in 1950 and has been used as a widely accepted self-description since the late 1950s (see note 1), whereas the term neoliberalism originated in the 1930s and has been used only intermittently and ambiguously ever since (Walpen 2004, 73f.). — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 519

Categorization

• DEFINE: Distinguishes when ‘ordoliberalism’ vs ‘neoliberalism’ entered usage — crucial terminological precision for this reader.
• QUESTION: Why did ‘neoliberalism’ remain ambiguous while ‘ordoliberalism’ became a stable self-description?
• XREF: connects to: Friedman abandoned the label neoliberal by the late 1950s — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion: Reinventing Free…, 443

Broader Connections

• Friedman abandoned the label neoliberal by the late 1950s #corroborates (0.70) — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion, 443