Particularly during the early period, we have ample evidence that the emerging ordoliberal camp was not ready to accept public opinion formation under conditions of parliamentarian democracy, with people freely expressing and mediating diverging interests and economic positions (Ptak 2002). The ordoliberals' prescriptions were constructed according to the ideas of Ordnungspolitik: societal participation in decision making was to be reduced so as to affirm decisions taken on behalf of the public, all in the name of freeing the market economy from destructive group interests, turning it toward a competitive order, and letting it thereby realize its alleged inherent social potential.

Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, loc. 525