The ordoliberal ideal of a competitive order deprived of political power and working in a steady state of perfect competition could never have served as a blueprint for postwar reconstruction. Ordoliberals perceived neoclassical economics to be in need of further amendment in order to be translated into practical experience. How could the imposition of a free market compel or encourage already existing monopolies and oligopolies to give up their dominant economic position? … The ordoliberal model of a market embedded in various social and political institutions largely failed because of highly unrealistic expectations. Instead of tackling the current societal, social, and political conditions, it remained oriented toward an abstract ideal of society that displayed features of enlightened absolutism and preindustrial social structures.

Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, loc. 552