Culture, Institutions, and Markets: Insights from the Experience of Ordo-Liberalism

Abstract

Ordo-liberalism constitutes a distinct set of ideas within twentieth-century classical liberalism. Through examining key ordo-liberal ideas expressed in the works of two prominent and representative ordo-liberals—Walter Eucken and Wilhelm Röpke—this essay explores how ordo-liberals sought to integrate the case for a market economy into commitments to specific moral, political, philosophical, and legal goals. It also assesses the relative success and failure of ordo-liberals in advancing their ideas at the intellectual level and in the policy arena.