Shelter from the storm: The ordoliberal world of welfare capitalism

The social policy of the ordoliberal tradition has attracted limited scholarly attention despite an increased interest in the content of Ordoliberalism. This article attempts to fill the research gap through a reconstruction of the ideal-typical ordoliberal social policy model and its conception of the welfare state. At the same time, the author compares the scholarly positions of the first-generation ordoliberal thinkers with three ideal-typical welfare state models of social policy distilled from Esping-Andersen’s seminal book The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism (1990). Aiming to uncover the possible distinctiveness of the ordoliberal social policy model, the conclusion is that while the ordoliberal social policy model shares similarities with the liberal and conservative models in Esping-Andersen’s typology, it constitutes a welfare policy model in its own right, not least via its foundation in Vitalpolitik.