Ordoliberalism, Law and the Rule of Economics

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Ordoliberalism is a theoretical and cultural tradition of significant societal and political impact in post-war Germany. For a long time the theory was only known outside Germany by a handful of experts, but ordoliberalism has now moved centre stage after the advent of the financial crisis, and has become widely perceived as the ideational source of Germanys crisis politics. In this collection, the contributors engage in a multi-faceted exploration of the conceptual history of ordoliberalism, the premises of its founding fathers in law and economics, its religious underpinnings, the debates over its theoretical assumptions and political commitments, and its formative vision of societal ordering based upon a synthesis of economic theories and legal concepts. The renewal of that vision through the ordoliberal conceptualisation of the European integration project, the challenges of the current European crisis, and the divergent perceptions of ordoliberalism within Germany and by its northern and southern EU neighbours, are a common concern of all these endeavours. They unfold interdisciplinary affinities and misunderstandings, cultural predispositions and prejudices, and political preferences and cleavages. By examining European traditions through the lens of ordoliberalism, the book illustrates the diversity of European economic cultures, and the difficulty of transnational political exchanges, in a time of European crisis.

Reviews

[T]his is a crucial book if one really wants to understand the evolving debate on the nature, significance and diffusion of Ordoliberalism, beyond and against many, accumulated commonplaces. An even more precious work, if one wants to grasp the shortcomings of the current economic governance of the Eurozone, and what we can expect from a reform of its flawed architecture. -- Fabio Masini, University of Roma Tre * History of Economic Thought and Policy *

Author Bio

Josef Hien is Post-Doctoral Fellow at the REScEU project, funded by the European Research Council and hosted at the University of Milan. Christian Joerges is Professor of Law and Society at the Hertie School of Governance in Berlin, and Co-Director of the Centre of European Law and Politics at the University of Bremen.