Is Ordoliberalism left wing or right wing?

On economic organisation Ordoliberalism scores +06 on a scale from −10 (common ownership) to +10 (private property and markets). On social and cultural order it scores +02. A single left–right figure combines these and four further measurements that move independently, which is why the atlas reports six.

Is Ordoliberalism authoritarian?

On the organisation of power, which measures whether authority is dispersed among institutions that can stop each other or concentrated in a single centre, Ordoliberalism scores −06. Constitutional state with binding rules that politicians cannot bargain away.

Atlas / Organisations / Ordoliberalism

Ordoliberalism

Freiburg School · 1936– · Germany · Liberal · Doctrine / school · coding confidence high

+06ECmarket

+02CUtraditional

−06AUpluralist

+01SCcentral

−01IDuniversal

−07CHlawful

Each axis runs from −10 to +10, with zero a genuine mixed or balanced position rather than an absence of opinion. A score describes a stated position and a governing record; it is not a judgement of merit. What each score means →

Core principles

Markets do not maintain themselves; a strong state must construct and police competitive order and prevent private power.

Economic model

Strict competition law, independent central bank, stable money, a social safety net, no industrial planning.

Organisation of powers

Constitutional state with binding rules that politicians cannot bargain away.

Reading note

Explains why 'neoliberal' is a poor label for German economic policy: it is pro-market and strongly anti-laissez-faire.

Check a claim about Ordoliberalism. The interactive atlas measures the distance between any two organisations across all six axes and shows which ones carry the disagreement.

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The evidence for every score

All six cells are sourced. A rationale explains what the score is measuring and each artefact is something a third party can check without taking anyone's word for it.

EC · Economic organisation · scored +06

Coded +6: markets constructed and policed rather than left alone.

Programme textEucken's Grundsätze sets out constitutive principles including a functioning price system and stable money.

CU · Social and cultural order · scored +02

Coded +2: a conservative social frame within a liberal economic order.

ScholarshipThe school emerged from Protestant and Catholic social thought as much as from economics.

AU · Organisation of power · scored −06

Coded −6: binding rules that politicians cannot bargain away.

Documented act or statuteThe Bundesbank's statutory independence and the Federal Cartel Office both derive from this school.

SC · Scale of decision · scored +01

Coded +1: a strong national framework and later a European one.

ScholarshipEuropean competition law was substantially shaped by ordoliberal thinking.

ID · Rule of membership · scored −01

Coded −1: no membership doctrine.

ScholarshipThe school addresses economic order rather than the composition of the polity.

CH · Method and tempo · scored −07

Coded −7: constitutional economics, changed by law.

Documented act or statuteThe 1948 currency reform and the Basic Law were the school's instruments.

Where it came from, and what came after

takes its doctrine fromClassical Liberalism
Freiburg reformulated liberalism as an order the state must construct rather than leave alone.
gave doctrine toPostwar Christian Democracy
The social market economy was the school's programme carried into government.

Nearest organisations by measured distance

Straight-line separation across all six axes, out of a maximum of 49.0. Proximity means similarity of stated position, not endorsement and not resemblance in outcome.

Countries

Germany

Cite this page

Scores are revised on evidence, so a citation should carry the version it refers to. Version 4.3.1 is current; the revision log records every change.

McGrath, K. (2026). Ordoliberalism. The Political Atlas, version 4.2. https://thepoliticalatlas.com/organisations/ordolib/ (accessed 2026-08-01).

Free to quote and reproduce with attribution. This is a synthesis rather than a peer-reviewed dataset — where an authoritative figure is needed, cite the Chapel Hill Expert Survey, the Manifesto Project or V-Dem.