Ordoliberalism denied an essential capitalist logic and made rival capitalisms inventable

Evidence

So, first of all, an essential Capitalism (Ie capitalisme), with its logic, contradictions, and impasses does not exist. Second, it now becomes perfectly possible to invent or devise a capitalism different from the first, different from the capitalism we have known, and whose essential principle would be a reorganization of the institutional framework in terms of-the Rule-.oflaw, and which would consequently discard the whole system of administrative or legal interventionism which states have assumed the right to impose, be it in the form of the nineteenth century protectionist economy or of the planned economy ofthe twentieth century. — Michel Foucault, The Birth of Biopolitics, 940

Categorization

• XREF: The claim that capitalism is not a unified essence but an institutional construct resonates with later ‘varieties of capitalism’ literature and Thatcher’s TINA rhetoric logic. — connects to: Eucken saw capitalism as two incompatible orders that real economies must combine — Mark Blyth, Austerity: The History of a Dangerous…, 361; Ordoliberals saw the economic constitution as imposed by deliberate political will from above — Quinn Slobodian, Globalists: The End of Empire and the…, 697; Ordoliberals traced Nazism to technocratic state management, not capitalism — Michel Foucault, The Birth of Biopolitics: Lectures at…, 671 (+6 more)

Broader Connections

• Ordoliberalism defined itself as a third way between capitalism and socialism #expands (0.75) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 546
• Ordoliberals distrusted capitalism’s own features like urbanization and mass parties #expands (0.72) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 153
• German ordoliberalism inverted the classical liberal problem of limiting the state #expands (0.72) — Michel Foucault, The Birth of Biopolitics, 560
• Ordoliberalism’s founding critique of capitalism was culturally conservative and antimodernist #expands (0.70) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 509
• Both Schumpeter and ordoliberals rejected Marx’s internal-contradiction thesis of capitalism #corroborates (0.70) — Michel Foucault, The Birth of Biopolitics, 947
• Ordoliberal enterprise society is simultaneously for and against the market #expands (0.70) — Michel Foucault, The Birth of Biopolitics, 1268