Ordoliberalism, Law and the Rule of Economics

Description

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 Germany's 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. Preface and Acknowledgements Table of Contents List of Contributors List of Abbreviations Introduction I. Re-constructions: What Kind of Theory is it? II. Ordoliberalism in Europe III. An alternative research agenda Section I:
Irritations/Perceptions of Ordoliberalism and of German Politics 1:
Dirigisme and Modernism vs Ordoliberalism Abstract I. Introduction II. French Modernism and neoliberalism III. Dirigisme: a synthesis between modernism and neoliberalism IV. French neoliberalism and Ordoliberalismus compared 2: Why and How has German Ordoliberalism Become a French Issue? Some Aspects about Ordoliberal Thoughts we can Learn from the French Reception Abstract I. Introduction II. Ordoliberalism, the liberal tradition, and Germany III. Foucault's Birth of Biopolitics: Ordoliberalism as a new mode of governmentality IV. How ordoliberalism has shaped the EU-integration's process: a new phase of discussion in France V. Conclusion 3: Ordoliberalism's Trans-Atlantic (Un)Intelligibility: From Friedman and Eucken to Geithner and Schäuble Abstract I. Introduction II. Trans-Atlantic Bridges and Breaks: Freiburg Ordoliberalism and Chicago Neoliberalism III. Trans-Atlantic Divides during the Eurocrisis: Timothy Geithner and Wolfgang Schäuble 4: The Tepid Reception of Ordoliberalism in Italy and Present-Day Dissent Abstract I. The tenets of Ordoliberalism and the European periphery crisis II. The tradition of ethical liberalism and the academic reception of Ordoliberalism III. The political reception of Ordoliberal principles IV. Contemporary interest in the Freiburg school V. Some remarkable positions among Italian scholars relatively to austerity VI. Conclusion: same liberalism, different ethics and interests 5: Ordoliberalism as Tradition and as Ideology Abstract I. Ordoliberalism as a Tradition II. The Ordoliberal Tradition as Explicit and as Tacit Knowledge III. The Ordoliberal Tradition as Ideal Type and as Family Resemblance IV. Ordoliberalism as Authentic and as Invented Tradition-Memorising and Forgetting V. Ordoliberalism as Ideology Section II: The Political Liberalism of Ordoliberalism 6: Ordoliberalism as a Variety of Neoliberalism Abstract I. Introduction II. What is Neoliberalism? III. The Specificity of Ordoliberalism IV. Ordoliberalism and Ordnungsökonomik 7: Breaking the 'Caging' Mentality: Ordoliberalism, Responsibility and Solidarity in the EU Abstract I. Introduction II. The EU, democratic responsibility and social citizenship III. Heaven or Hell? The euro and its possible break-up IV. The search for European solidarity: three priorities 8: What is Neoliberal in Germany's and Europe's Crisis Politics? Abstract I. Introduction II. Forms of Neoliberalism: German Neoliberalism and Anglo-Saxon Neoliberalism III. Historical Origin of Continental European Neoliberalism IV. Ordoliberalism as Defined by its Critics as a Danger for Europe V. Has ordoliberalism shaped the Euro crisis management? VI. Conclusion 9: The Success Story of Ordoliberalism as the Guiding Principle of German Economic Policy Abstract I. Introduction II. Ordoliberalism, neoliberalism, German neoliberalism III. The History of German neoliberalism in economic think tank networks IV. Conclusions Section III: The Ordering Functions of Law in the Ordoliberal Tradition 10: Debunking the Myth of the Ordoliberal Influence on Post-war European Integration Abstract I. Introduction II. The Ordoliberal Utopia of an Ordered Capitalist Competition III. Debunking the Myth of the Ordoliberal Competitive Market Order and the Social Market Economy IV. Debunking the Myth of Ordoliberalism Being Distinct from Neoliberalism V. Debunking the Myth of Ordoliberal Influence on German and EC/EU Competition Rules VI. Conclusion 11: The Overburdening of Law by Ordoliberalism and the Integration Project Abstract I. Introduction II. Economic Constitutionalism: The Legal Form of a Pre-existing Ordo III. The Ordoliberal Project of a European Economic Constitution IV. The EU After Maastricht 12: Ordoliberal Escape from Societas Economica: Re-establishing the Normative Abstract I. Global Weimar: Longing for Global Order II. Learning Lessons from European Malaise Section IV: The Moral and Normative Dimension of ‘the Economic’ and the Ordoliberal Tradition 13: Ordoliberalism, Polanyi, and the Theodicy of Markets Abstract I. Introduction II. State and market: two accounts of the 'double movement' III. Replanning laissez-faire: the theodicy of markets IV. Conclusion 14: Ordoliberalism Within and Outside Germany's Co-ordinated Market Economy Abstract I. Introduction II. Eucken on Full Employment Policy III. When Parallel Universes Touched IV. Ordoliberalism and German Political Economy V. A European Constitutional Economic Order? 15: Competition or Conflict? Beyond Traditional Ordoliberalism Abstract I. Competition v Conflict II. How to Introduce Conflict in a Simple Model of Competitive Markets III. Envy-free Allocations as a Potential Constitutional Solution to Conflict in Competitive Markets IV. The New Ordoliberal Agenda: Rebuilding the Institutional Foundations for a Peaceful Market Economy through Pre-distributional Policies V. Conclusion 16: Ordoliberalism and the Quest for Sacrality Abstract I. Introduction II. Taxonomy and Method III. Ordoliberalism and Religion IV. Social Market Economy as Civil Religion V. Conclusion Section V: Government without Law 17: Ordoliberalism and Political Theology: On the Government of Stateless Money Abstract I. Introduction II. Authoritarian Liberalism and Political Theology III. Political Authority, Morality and Freedom IV. On the Ordnungsgefüge of the European Union 18: Policy Between Rules and Discretion Abstract I. Introduction II. The Idea of an Economic Constitution III. The Place of the Extraordinary in the Ordoliberal Tradition IV. Discussion: Rules and Discretion in the Euro Crisis 19: How Monetary Rules and Wage Discretion get into Conflict in the Eurozone (And What—If Anything—Ordoliberalism has to do with it) Abstract I. Introduction II. Wages, Prices, interest Rates, and Current Accounts in the Eurozone: The Increasing divergence between Centre and Periphery III. Adjustment Processes of Two Different Political Economies: The Centre and the Periphery of the Eurozone IV. Discussion and Outlook Index