What is the appropriate role of the state in economic policy-making? This paper shows that Friedrich Hayek, who is often considered a proponent of laissez-faire liberalism, offers three different answers to this problem. First, Hayek argues that the state should provide a legal framework for...

This paper provides, after a contextualizing introduction, the first-time translation of Walter Eucken’s presentation during the first session of the founding meeting of the Mont Pèlerin Society, April 1-10, 1947. Eucken was the only scholar based in Germany to attend the conference and took...

Should economic policy be guided by rules? In this paper, we take the perspective of the Freiburg School and trace its argument for rule-based Ordnungspolitik back to the roots of the concept. In doing so, will not offer a comprehensive review of the literature, but argue closely along the works...

This paper contextualizes the early political economy of Austrian economist and social philosopher F. A. Hayek in the intellectual milieu of German ordoliberalism. It argues that the particular urgency during the 1930s and 1940s to preserve and stabilize the disintegrating orders of economy and...

F.A Hayek is one of the most important and influential advocates of liberalism in the 20th century. His theory is famously based on the concept of spontaneous order, an order emerging from the interaction of individuals without central control and appears critical of every form of...

Die Corona-Krise wirkt wie ein Brandbeschleuniger in der Diskussion um das Ausmaß staatlichen Einflusses in der Sozialen Marktwirtschaft. Soll sich der Staat in Deutschland und Europa stärker steuernd in das Wirtschaftsgeschehen einmischen oder wird es vielmehr Zeit, den Marktmechanismen...

My paper reconstructs the path of German economist Friedrich A. Lutz (1901−1975) to American economics. The correspondence with his former teacherWalter Eucken, the founder of the Freiburg School, constitutes a crucial and yet unexplored source for the paper. Through Lutz's case, I demonstrate...

Die Glücksspielregulierung der vergangenen 20 Jahre ist im Wesentlichen ein Lehrstück für politisches Versagen. Unter fortwährender Missachtung von Europa- und bisweilen auch Verfassungsrecht wurden zum einen Grundfreiheiten der Bürgerinnen und Bürger eingeschränkt, zum anderen gab es...

In the aftermath of the Eurozone crisis, a battle of ideas emerged over whether ordoliberalism is part of the cause or the solution of economic problems in Europe. While German ordoliberals argued that their policy proposals were largely ignored before, during and after the crisis, critics saw...

Vincent Ostrom's legacy is revisited in this paper along three dimensions: Ostrom's contributions as a historian of politico-economic thought, as a complexity theorist, and as an epistemologist. All three dimensions are captured from a perspective which has seldom been studied systematically...

In recent years, commentators have noticed that the European liberal order is 'under attack'. Traditional parties of the center are in decline. Populist movements of the right and the left have won elections or significant shares in parliaments. In the face of this 'new' crisis of liberalism,...

Ever since the global financial crisis of 2008, interpreted by some observers as a foreseeable failure of "unfettered" capitalism, the German intellectual tradition of ordoliberalism has been meeting with increased interest. Its emphasis on good government, appropriate rules and institutions...

In recent years, commentators have noticed that the European liberal order is ‘under attack'. Traditional parties of the center are in decline. Populist movements of the right and the left have won elections or significant shares in parliaments. In the face of this ‘new' crisis of...

This chapter explores how Walter Eucken situated himself in respect to John Maynard Keynes’s thought. It will be shown in particular that Keynes and Eucken were less alien to one another than is commonly assumed in the secondary literature. By considering together Keynes and Eucken's letters...

Ordoliberalism is often referred to as the German version of neoliberalism and the dominant economic ideology behind the European economic constitution. Following the German experience of the interwar period, ordoliberal theory is best known for its emphasis on state and rule-based coordination...

"Today, ordoliberalism is at the centre of the ongoing debate about the foundations, the present governance and future prospects of the European Union-and yet we do not dispose of a comprehensive definition of it. Whenever we talk of the dominance of the German model, the discussion should...

"The theory of spontaneous order conceptualizes and explains a number of institutional and social phenomena that are not an intended effect of either individual decisions or a collective consensus but an unplanned outcome of interactions between people pursuing their own aims. Drawing on these...

The currency reform on 20 June 1948, together with a comprehensive liberalisation of prices and the implementation of monopoly control, formed the basis for the West German economic miracle. From then on, the market principles formulated by Walter Eucken und implemented by Ludwig Erhard became...

This paper addresses the intellectual relationship between Max Weber and three key proponents of neoliberalism: F.A. Hayek, Walter Eucken and Wilhelm Röpke. This relationship is contextualized in the history of German-language political economy, focusing on the nexus and proximity between early...

The purpose of this paper is to present the views of various schools of economic thought on the sources of the institutional order of economies. The premises of the theories of constituted and spontaneous economic orders are taken as the criteria on the basis of which the sources of an...