Ordoliberalism, like classical liberalism, maintained that a free enterprise system was necessary for a free, prosperous, and equitable society. Unlike classical liberals, ordoliberals advocated that a competitive economic system should be grounded in a specific “constitutional” framework; this, according to Gerber (1998), was the signature contribution of ordoliberalism and its significant departure from classical liberalism. For ordoliberalism’s vision of society to become a reality, society needed both a political constitution and an “economic constitution.” The political and legal decisions that would give rise to society’s economic system would determine the nature of its economic constitution.

Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, loc. 1087