German neoliberals, insistent on the need to pay strict attention to questions of sociopolitical integration, deserve credit for acknowledging the destructive potential of the market economy. At the same time, this debate reflects a strange mix of steadfast belief in the market on the one hand and of reactionary pessimism with regard to progress and the future on the other. The pure ordoliberal design of a market society was ultimately doomed to fail given these inherent contradictions, which resulted from the combination of economic modernity and antimodern political, social, and cultural ideas.

Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, loc. 506