Ordoliberal conception of economic order (a contribution to a theoretical base of system reforms)

The article undertakes an attempt to compare the ordoliberal paradigm with the paradigms of other more important economic schools. The purpose of the article is to determine whether Walter Eucken's theses deseve to be called original or they are merely a continuation of earlier conceptions. Defining a paradigm (sec. 1), reconstructing it with respect to ordoliberal theory (sec. 2) and comparing it with other paradigms (sec. 3) allowed us to formulate the following conclusions: — There are hardly any more original elements in ordoliberal writings. — The ordoliberal theory is nonetheless a coherent system which, as a whole, is an interesting and new attempt to adapt competition mechanism to "serving" the society. — Developing consistently a thesis about a complex character of economic phenomena Eucken was able to determine the features of the economic order policy; it constitutes a major theoretical achievement verified by the economic praxis. — The ordoliberal paradigm seems, as a whole, to be the outcome of the naturalistic approach — with respect to assumptions, and the neovoluntary approach — with respect to norms. The analyses justify an observation that Walter Eucken's theory is of reformistic character, i.e. it tries to introduce into the mechanism of free competition economy some conditions of moral nature. Since in the economics of socialism one can also observe the appearance of reformistic paradigms introducing into the theory of socialism some conditions of pragmatic nature, the authors considered it interesting to continue comparative research into both types of reformistic paradigms.Digitalizacja i deponowanie archiwalnych zeszytów RPEiS sfinansowane przez MNiSW w ramach realizacji umowy nr 541/P-DUN/201