The Walter Eucken Institute aims to investigate the emergence, further development and current significance of ordoliberal thinking. An important research focus is the influence of ordoliberalism on the concept of the Social Market Economy and its relevance for today’s economic and social policy reforms.
Additionally, the institute, in cooperation with recognized historians of ideas, wants to continue to promote research on the individual members of the Freiburg School.
This project was concerned with the role of the state in early ordoliberal thinking.
The members of the Freiburg School of the 1930s and 1940s emphasised the positive tasks of government in creating a functioning market economy. In doing so, they assigned an important role to the state as “guardian of the competitive order” (Eucken). Yet, the Freiburg School did not investigate the functioning of the political process. The dissertation at hand aims to clarify the role of the state in the thinking of the founders of the Freiburg School and answer questions with regard to the legitimacy of Eucken’s competitive order.
Doctoral thesis project Daniel Nientiedt
