Given the range of worldwide neoliberal concepts, ordoliberalism as a specific continental European current was largely formed in Germany—and also in Turkish and Swiss exile—from the 1930s to the 1950s. Its distinctive characteristic is an elaborately developed theory of the state, which is held to be indispensable for the constitution and stabilization of the continuously aspired competitive order. German ordoliberal concepts entail a strong authoritarian element, which is displayed in a fundamental skepticism toward democracy: In this sense, the ordoliberal market society is a morally grounded and socially formed competitive society that is supposed to curb the acknowledged destructive potential of markets and special interests.

Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, loc. 557