social market economy

The social market economy was the main economic model used in Western and Northern Europe during the Cold War era. It originated in West Germany, and it is known as Soziale Marktwirtschaft in German. In West Germany, the social market model was created and implemented by the Christian Democrat Ludwig Erhard, Minister of Economics under Konrad Adenauer's chancellorship and German Chancellor in his own right from 1963 to 1966. While social market economies are often seen as the realization of ordoliberalism and do in fact chiefly stem from the theories of the ordoliberals, the systems actually put into effect in Europe after the Second World War were strongly influenced by social democracy and generally have a slight social-democratic bent.
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