Ordoliberalism, Law and the Rule of Economics

by Josef Hien, Christian Joerges

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781509937509
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	04/30/2020
Pages:	344
Product dimensions:	6.69(w) x 9.61(h) x 0.71(d)

About the Author

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.

Table of Contents

Preface and Acknowledgements v

List of Contributors ix

List of Abbreviations xv

Introduction: Objectives and Contents of the Volume Josef Hien Christian Joerges 1

Section I Irritations/Perceptions of Ordoliberalism and of German Politics

1 Dirigisme and Modernism vs Ordoliberalism Bruno Amable 13

2 Why and How has German Ordoliberalism Become a French Issue? Some Aspects about Ordoliberal Thoughts we can Learn from the French Reception Arnaud Lechevalier 23

3 Ordoliberalism's Trans-Atlantic (Un)Intelligibility: From Friedman and Eucken to Geithner and Schäuble William Callison 49

4 The Tepid Reception of Ordoliberalism in Italy and Present-Day Dissent Stefano Solari 71

5 Ordoliberalism as Tradition and as Ideology Kenneth Dyson 87

Section II The Political Liberalism of Ordoliberalism

6 Ordoliberalism as a Variety of Neoliberahsm Thomas Biebricher 103

7 Breaking the 'Caging' Mentality: Ordoliberalism, Responsibility and Solidarity in the EU Maurizio Ferrera 115

8 What is Neoliberal in Germany's and Europe's Crisis Politics? Brigitte Young 129

9 The Success Story of Ordoliberalism as the Guiding Principle of German Economic Policy Stephan Pühringer 143

Section III The Ordering Functions of Law in the Ordoliberal Tradition

10 Debunking the Myth of the Ordoliberal Influence on Post-war European Integration Angela Wigger 161

11 The Overburdening of Law by Ordoliberalism and the Integration Project Christian Joerges 179

12 Ordoliberal Escape from Societas Economica: Re-establishing the Normative Michelle Everson 201

Section IV The Moral and Normative Dimension of 'the Economic' and the Ordoliberal Tradition

13 Ordoliberalism, Polanyi, and the Theodicy of Markets David M. Woodruff 215

14 Ordoliberalism Within and Outside Germany's Co-ordinated Market Economy Albert Weale 229

15 Competition or Conflict? Beyond Traditional Ordoliberalism Malte Dold Tim Krieger 245

16 Ordoliberalism and the Quest for Sacrality Josef Hien 261

Section V Government without Law

17 Ordoliberalism and Political Theology: On the Government of Stateless Money Werner Bonefeld 273

18 Policy Between Rules and Discretion Jonathan White 289

19 How Monetary Rules and Wage Discretion get into Conflict in the Eurozone (And What-If Anything-Ordoliberalism has to do with it) Philip Manow 301

Index 317