Ordo-Liberalism as Tradition, Ideology, and Model of Citizenship: Memorializing, Reinventing, Forgetting

Abstract

Abstract This chapter examines the complex processes of memorialization, reinvention, and forgetting that have characterized the Ordo-liberal tradition; the role of the Freiburg School; the selection of certain aspects of political economy and of certain thinkers and texts; and the distinctive focusing illusions that have followed. It also looks at how its identity has been shaped by its ideological makeup and its model of citizenship. The picture that emerges is of a tradition whose core characteristics can be defined but whose boundaries are difficult to fix. Part of the problem is its ideological hybridity as both conservative and liberal. The chapter looks at the dual nature of the Ordo-liberal tradition as explicit and formalized knowledge and as tacit and common-sense knowledge (William Sorley). In the first sense it is characterized by academic power structures, notably in economics and law, and canonical texts, and by the effects of generational change on these structures. In the second sense, Ordo-liberalism is bound up with administrative cultures and the extent to which they are rule-bound and receptive. The chapter then considers two other aspects of the Ordo-liberal tradition: as ideal type (Eucken) and more loosely as family resemblance (Ludwig Wittgenstein); and as authentic and invented tradition (Eric Hobsbawm), distinguishing Freiburg 1, 2, and 3. Finally, the chapter identifies the Ordo-liberal model of citizenship as based on safeguarding the morally responsible individual: the wise consumer, the thrifty saver, and the responsible creditor. It condemns feckless and profligate behaviour, notably of debtors. This model is subjected to critique.