From Sick Man of Europe to the German Economic Power House. Two Narratives: Ordoliberalism versus Euro-Currency Regime

Abstract

The intent of the paper is to analyze two narratives about the remarkable turn-around of Germany in the 1990s as sick man of Europe to today’s most successful economy in the EU. Ordoliberalism is used by German policy makers and elites to account for the economic success story without taking into account the Euro currency regime which has overwhelmingly favoured Germany’s export-orientation. Ordoliberalism as an ideational concept has limited value as an explanatory force. As a result, German ordoliberal ideas have little current value to uphold it as a panacea for indebted peripheral countries to become more competitive. Nor are stories about the ordoliberalization of Europe justified. The recourse to ordoliberal positions is a highly superficial adaptation of ordoliberalism by German policy makers lacking greater theoretical potency. Thus neither in law nor in economics are authors to be found who represent a genuinely ordoliberal approach to explain the German success story or for that matter the Eurozone crisis management.