Taken together, Rüstow's social-psychological and ideological approach embodied in his concept of a Vitalpolitik, and Röpke's sociological "structural policy," were the linchpins of the ordoliberal political project. Central to both was an imperative to strengthen the capitalist social structure with the provision of determined and sustained support to small and medium-size enterprises and to family agriculture. The members of the independent middle strata of society were considered the most important recruits for the ordoliberal policy project. They were to constitute the fertile soil ("Mutterboden," Röpke 1946, 224) of the desired order. Although they were extolled as the "healthy" core of an ailing society threatened by industrialization and mass culture, curiously, they were also considered an apolitical and uncompromised quantity still cognizant of "rendering to the king what is owed to the king, but also giving to god what belongs to god" (Röpke 1946, 223). In addition, the function of the middle strata as intermediate rungs in the climb up the social ladder was stressed time and again, not least by Müller-Armack (1947, 127), who referred in a more pragmatic manner to the reconciliation function of the "tremendously important intermediary and middle strata" of society. Thus, liberal ideas about social advance due to meritocracy were to some extent reconciled with considerations of natural hierarchy.

Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, loc. 514