This economic constitution was not simply something that could be set down on paper, however. Ordoliberals argued that the correct economic constitution cannot simply be deduced from theory and imposed by the state. It must be actively supported by members of the community to which it applies, and crucially, its implementation must be based upon a reciprocal duty of those members to act in the terms laid out in the constitution. In short, everyone needs to follow the rules, and everyone doing so reconstitutes and legitimates those rules.

Mark Blyth, Austerity, loc. 363