Ordoliberalism defined itself as a third way between capitalism and socialism

Evidence

The extensive ordoliberal literature produced between 1945 and the founding of the Federal Republic in 1949 addresses five main themes: first, building an ideological front against collectivism in the form of the Soviet Union and its various Western varieties of economic democracy and planning; second, dissociating ordoliberalism from laissez-faire principles; third, justifying, modifying, and stating more precisely the principles of ordoliberalism (Ordnungspolitik), and applying these economic policies (“arranged” market economy); fourth, developing a frame in search of a community of people directed by market economy principles; and fifth, producing a constructive draft designed to combine society and economy in terms of a third way between capitalism (as a historically outdated order) and socialism (as a current threat), which finally materialized in the social market economy. — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 546

Categorization

• DEFINE: Distills the five core themes of early ordoliberal literature, centrally the constructively ambiguous self-positioning as a ‘third way’ beyond both capitalism and socialism.
• ADDENDUM: Relevant to the ‘On Sacrifice’ piece’s discussion of ‘third way’ framings of social orders — though that article concerns ritual sacrifice, the three-way schematic opposition recapitulates ordoliberalism’s self-conception.
• XREF: connects to: Ordoliberalism modernized liberalism while keeping its economics classical and supply-side. — Mark Blyth, Austerity: The History of a Dangerous…, 373; Ordoliberalism denied an essential capitalist logic and made rival capitalisms inventable — Michel Foucault, The Birth of Biopolitics: Lectures at…, 940; Ordoliberalism departed from classical liberalism by grounding markets in a constitutional framework — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 1087 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Ordoliberalism departed from classical liberalism by grounding markets in a constitutional framework #expands (0.85) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 1087