Various reasons explain the success of the ordoliberals in influencing the public economic debate. First, the ordoliberals came up with a culturally coherent concept of economic theory at a time characterized by political, economic, and social turbulence. The normative character of the Ordo doctrine sketching a prospective harmony of economy and society was attractive to a largely insecure population; despite their sympathy for anticapitalist positions, people were reluctant to become part of any new experiments. The popularity of ordoliberal concepts was particularly based on an ingrained mistrust of laissez-faire capitalism and partly on a stance that was politically favorable to strict antimonopoly policy. But the popularity was also due to the absence of coherent and persuasively elaborated rival concepts of Keynesian provenance in support of democratic socialism in Germany.

Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, loc. 547