Ordoliberalism captured the postwar CDU because its communitarian rhetoric matched Catholic voters

Evidence

Fourth, the postwar political party system was a mess, and the center parties, particularly the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) were looking for a new set of ideas that spoke to their (predominantly) Catholic members’ conceptions of their interests. With its appeal to community, its distrust of private as well as public power, and its somewhat reluctant—but necessary given the conditions of the times—acceptance of welfare state redistribution through the family, ordoliberalism found both a willing audience and a launch vehicle in the CDU. — Mark Blyth, Austerity, 369

Categorization

• XREF: The ideological affinity between Catholic social thought and ordoliberal communitarianism connects to the history of democracy-skeptical economic constitutionalism and its appeal to the specific ‘Catholic social teaching’ lineage. — connects to: German ordoliberalism combined a strong-state Ordnungspolitik with sociocultural individualism and postwar integrationism — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 515; Ordoliberalism’s Christian moral turn was a response to its leaders’ Nazi entanglement — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 537

Broader Connections

• Ordoliberalism’s Christian moral turn was a response to its leaders’ Nazi entanglement #complicates (0.78) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 537
• German ordoliberalism combined a strong-state Ordnungspolitik with sociocultural individualism and postwar integrationism #qualifies (0.72) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 515