Social Market Economy: origins, meanings and interpretations

This paper investigates various possible meanings of 'Social Market Economy'-60 years after its political initiation in Germany. We focus on the variety of intellectual sources that influenced the formation and interpretation of the concept in Germany during the first half of the last century. Our particular attention is on Milller-Armack's definition of a rather dualistic concept of 'social' versus `market economy' and the subtle differences it has with an original (Freiburg School) view of ordo-liberalism that lends itself more easily to a constitutional economics perspective.