Post-War Ordoliberalism, Race and the Politics of Development

Abstract

Abstract This chapter discusses how leading Ordoliberal thinkers, Wilhelm Röpke and Alexander Rüstow, approached the concepts of race and development in their post-war writings, arguing that these offered them a means of theorising non-Western culture. It begins by mapping their respective positions on race, showing that whilst Röpke and Rüstow held different views on the notion of racial superiority, both men believed that ‘scientifically’ informed race theory is a legitimate and important branch of the social sciences. The chapter then proceeds to discuss the way they framed the concept of economic ‘underdevelopment’, which they theorised as the result of cultural ‘backwardness’. The chapter contends that this argument was underpinned by their shared belief in the importance of racial differences and concludes that despite their differing views on racial hierarchy, both Röpke and Rüstow relied on a racialised understanding of culture and development.