Ordoliberals redefined the state as the instrument that creates market economies.

Evidence

Without initially taking too much notice of each other, each of these authors tried to analyze the “crisis of capitalism” that had erupted since the late 1920s and announced a quest for a “new liberalism” (Rüstow 1932, 172). Their discussion focused on revision of liberal approaches to the state. The state was now newly identified as the momentous instrument needed to achieve the principles of a market economy. Despite significant differences in their analytical approach, all the authors were united in their effort to reject the common interpretation of the hitherto most severe crisis of the capitalist economy as proof of the failure of capitalism. However, they also regarded the world economic crisis as a wake-up call to search for a new theoretical and ideological justification for a free market economy, which all of them never doubted was the most effective economic system despite the Great Depression. — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 523

Categorization

• DEFINE: Core defining move of ordoliberalism: the state as market-constituting instrument, sharply distinct from laissez-faire’s minimal state.
• XREF: This is the state-market-constructivist thesis that distinguishes ordoliberalism from classical liberalism and later anchors the Freiburg School — ties to ongoing debates about ordoliberalism’s role in the EU. — connects to: Ordoliberalism makes state policy the guardian of fragile market mechanisms — Michel Foucault, The Birth of Biopolitics: Lectures at…, 1258; 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; Neoliberalism reversed the state’s protective role toward shielding markets — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos: Neoliberalism’s…, 745 (+6 more)

Broader Connections

• Ordoliberalism reframes the state as rule setter, not demand manager #expands (0.90) — Mark Blyth, Austerity, 355
• Ordoliberalism makes state policy the guardian of fragile market mechanisms #expands (0.85) — Michel Foucault, The Birth of Biopolitics, 1258
• Ordoliberalism governs market rules but forbids steering market outcomes #expands (0.85) — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 613
• Ordoliberals saw the economic constitution as imposed by deliberate political will from above #expands (0.85) — Quinn Slobodian, Globalists, 697
• Ordoliberalism departed from classical liberalism by grounding markets in a constitutional framework #expands (0.80) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 1087
• The neoliberal state governs for the market, not because of it. #expands (0.80) — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos, 111
• Neoliberalism reversed the state’s protective role toward shielding markets #complicates (0.75) — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos, 745
• Early ordoliberalism demanded a strong independent state to counter organized interests #corroborates (0.75) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 524
• The market replaced law as the source of state truth and legitimacy #complicates (0.70) — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos, 98