The Philosophy of Social Market Economy: Michel Foucault’s Analysis of Ordoliberalism

Abstract Michel Foucault’s lectures at the Collège de France in 1978–1979 centered on the analysis of power with regard to liberalism. Foucault especially focused on German ordoliberalism and its specific governmentality. Although Foucault’s review of the ordoliberal texts, programs, and books is very accurate there are some occasional “schematic” simplifications. Our article evaluates Foucault’s constitution of an ordoliberal “archive,” though more emphasis is placed on the general importance of the phenomenological orientation in Walter Eucken’s work. Hence, three tasks guide our paper: first, an analysis of Foucault’s position; second, the phenomenological foundation of ordoliberal discourse compared to 18th century liberal discourse, i.e. the way in which Walter Eucken received Husserl. Third, our article raises the subject of the mutual historical-epistemological complementation of philosophy and economics by taking Foucault’s analysis as the starting point. Furthermore, the consequences of a phenomenological, i.e. “eidetic” order of the economy, is discussed, focusing mainly on the expansion of competition in social domains. JEL Codes: B20, B29, B40