German neoliberalism, as represented by the so called Freiburg School, was mainly influenced by the economist Walter Eucken. Eucken’s economic methodology can only be understood if placed in the context of the German philosophical and sociological debate of that time. The revelation of these...

Demographic change and the financial difficulties in the social security systems this has caused have led to a public discussion focusing on the issue of intergenerational justice. In addition to the fundamental empirical and philosophical issues, the contributors to this volume analyze...

The increasing gap between the formerly socialist countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CE & EE) with regard to both their economic and political performance cannot be explained by their different starting conditions after the breakdown of the Soviet Union alone. Rather, it is due to cultural...

[Introduction] Walter Eucken (17 January 1891 - 20 March 1950) was the leading and most prominent figure of German liberal economics from the 1920s until well after his death. He represented the convergence between the liberalism of the Austrian school of economics' 'third generation' and the...

The continuing discussion about the future of the social market economy is producing new headlines daily with detailed suggestions for the restructuring of our economic and socio-political system. A fundamental conceptional analysis of this subject has however not been done up to the present....

This volume documents the papers given at the symposium on 'Freiburg Economists and the Resistance', which was held in July 2004, 60 years after the plot to assassinate Hitler, and which dealt with the role Freiburg economists played in the resistance against the Nazi-Regime in the surrounding...

The present study aims to add to our knowledge about economic rhetoric by conducting a data-driven analysis of economic academic discourse, both synchronically in its contemporary form, and diachronically over the past four decades. We find (1) that linguistically, economics is clearly an...

German economist Leonhard Miksch's ideas on ordoliberalism have so far received little attention in the history of economic thought. This is surprising, as Miksch provides insights into the debates within the so-called "Freiburg School of Law and Economics" in its early phase and, moreover, gave...

"Soziale Marktwirtschaft" (Social Market Economy) is the economic order that was established in Western Germany after 1945. It is not a precisely outlined theoretical system but more a cipher for a "mélange" of socio-political ideas for a free and socially just society and some general rules of...

Michel Foucault’s lectures at the Collège de France in 1978–1979 centered on the analysis of power with regard to liberalism. Foucault especially focused on German ordoliberalism and its specific governmentality. Although Foucault’s review of the ordoliberal texts, programs, and books is...