Freedom and the Strong State : On German Ordoliberalism

Ordoliberalism is the theory behind the German social market economy. Its theoretical stance developed in the context of the economic crisis and political turmoil of the Weimar Republic in the late 1920s. It is premised on the strong state as the locus of liberal governance, and holds that economic freedom derives from political authority. In the context of the crisis of neoliberal political economy and austerity, and debates about the resurgence of the state vis-à-vis the economy, the article introduces the ordoliberal argument that the free economy presupposes the exercise of strong state authority, and that economic liberty is a practice of liberal governance. This practice is fundamentally one of social policy to secure the sociological and ethical preconditions of free markets. The study of ordoliberalism brings to the fore a tradition of a state-centric neoliberalism, one that says that economic freedom is ordered freedom, one that argues that the strong state is the political form of free markets, and one that conceives of competition and enterprise as a political task

OBJETIVIDAD ECONÓMICA Y DIALÉCTICA NEGATIVA: SOBRE LA LUCHA

El título del artículo contiene dos afirmaciones poco comunes. En primer lu- gar, sostiene que la dialéctica negativa de Adorno implica una crítica de las relaciones constituidas de la objetividad económica. En segundo lugar, el subtítulo “sobre la lucha”, se opone a la concepción generalizada de la teoría crítica como una crítica inmanente de conceptos filosóficos y fenómenos so- ciales, no una dialéctica negativa de la lucha social. El artículo está dividido en tres apartados. En primer lugar, introduce el concepto de dialéctica nega- tiva como una crítica de la objetividad económica. A continuación, se expone la crítica de Adorno de las relaciones de intercambio capitalistas. La sección final analiza el significado de la clase en la dialéctica negativa

Authoritarian Liberalism : From Schmitt via Ordoliberalism to the Euro

The contribution examines the market liberal veracity of Hayek’s view that a dictatorship may be more liberal in its policies than an unlimited democratic assembly. Hayek’s warning about the potentially illiberal character of democratic government is key to the German ordoliberal thinking that emerged in the context of the crisis of the Weimar Republic. The ordoliberal thinkers were keenly aware of Schmitt’s political theology and argue with him that the state is the predominant power in the relationship between market and state, conceiving of this relationship as free economy and strong state. They argue that the establishment of social order is the precondition of free economy; law does not apply to disorder and does not create order. The liberal state is the ‘concentrated force’ of that order. The contribution argues that ordoliberalism is best characterized as an authoritarian liberalism and assesses its contemporary veracity in relation to European Union

Letter to the Editor: On Economic Sociology and the Critique of Society

Dear Editor