Ordoliberalism seeks maximum legal interventionism and minimal economic interventionism

Evidence

The other aspect of the text that I have just read concerns what we could call “legal interventionism,” which is the consequence of the first aspect. Ifwe accept that we are not dealing with an essential Capitalism deriving from the logic of Capital, but rather with a singular capitalism formed by an ecol1omic-institutional ensemble, then we must be able to act on this ensemble and intervene in such a way as to invent a different capitalis.m. We do-nothave to carry on with capitalism so much as invent a new one. But where and by what route will this irruption of innovation be able to take place within capitalism? Clearly innovation will not come from the laws of the market, it will not take place in the market itself sipce economic theory shows that, by definition, the market must function insuch away that its pure mechanisms are in themselves regulative of the whole. So we do not touch the laws of the market but act so that institutions are such that these laws, and only these laws, really are the principle ofgeneral economic regulation and, as a consequence, of social regulation. The consequence of this is no economic interventionism, or a minimum of economic interventionism, and maximum legal interventionism. — Michel Foucault, The Birth of Biopolitics, 904

Categorization

• DEFINE: The ordoliberal program pivots on this exact pairing: leave market laws untouched, intervene on institutions.
• XREF: connects to: Ordoliberalism reframes the state as rule setter, not demand manager — Mark Blyth, Austerity: The History of a Dangerous…, 355; Ordoliberal ‘economic constitution’ meant a normative vision, not a founding legal document. — Quinn Slobodian, Globalists: The End of Empire and the…, 696; Ordoliberalism makes state policy the guardian of fragile market mechanisms — Michel Foucault, The Birth of Biopolitics: Lectures at…, 1258 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Ordoliberalism governs market rules but forbids steering market outcomes #exemplifies (0.92) — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 613
• German ordoliberalism favors state framework provision over neoliberal state withdrawal. #corroborates (0.88) — Mark Blyth, Austerity, 164
• Ordoliberalism makes state policy the guardian of fragile market mechanisms #corroborates (0.85) — Michel Foucault, The Birth of Biopolitics, 1258
• Ordoliberals rejected laissez-faire because markets need moral and institutional scaffolding #corroborates (0.82) — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 118