The social market economy label legitimized market reforms politically
Evidence
The market-oriented reforms in postwar Germany were to a great extent stabilized and politically accepted because they were intellectually wedded to the concept of the social market economy. This concept was launched, not least as a result of the campaign launched by the dedicated employer organization Die Waage. — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 550
Categorization
- DEFINE: Clarifies that ‘social market economy’ functioned as a legitimating brand for ordoliberal capitalism, not just a descriptive term.
- XREF: Similar branding dynamics appear in later Thatcherite/Reaganite labeling efforts. — connects to: The social market economy favored capital owners yet bought mass approval — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 1995; Ordoliberal economic ideas became socially embedded through a welfare-state compromise — Mark Blyth, Austerity: The History of a Dangerous…, 366; The social market economy originated inside the neoliberal family, not against it — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 498 (+5 more)
Broader Connections
- The social market economy label was emptied of its original neoliberal meaning
#complicates(0.85) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 558 - Ordoliberalism makes state policy the guardian of fragile market mechanisms
#corroborates(0.75) — Michel Foucault, The Birth of Biopolitics, 1258 - Three invariants define the social market economy’s pragmatic core.
#expands(0.72) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 556