Victoria Haidar
Orcid ID: orcid.org/0000-0002-5569-4308
Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (Conicet) y Universidad Nacional del Litoral, Argentina
vhaidar@fcjs.unl.edu.ar
Abstract:
This paper recreates how three emblematic authors in German Ordoliberalism —Wilhem Röpke, Alexander Rüstow, and Alfred Müller-Armack, challenged ’the social’ between the end of World War II and early 1960s. We argue that far from abridging this question to the issues of income distribution and job insecurity, the ordoliberal approach emphasized on subjective and qualitative dimensions of existence, articulating them in terms of ‘happiness’ and ‘quality of life’. By the same token, this work discusses the social reform strategies posited by those authors, seeking to institutionalize the boundaries that, in their approach, ‘human nature’ imposed on capitalism, as well as to ‘revitalize’ workers’ lifestyle.
Keywords: ordoliberalism, the social, happiness, quality of life.
