Unternehmen als Agenten der Armutsüberwindung und Entwicklung. Ihr Beitrag aus Sicht von Ordoliberalismus und Capability-Ansatz / Corporate potentials to fight poverty and foster human development. Ordoliberalismus and Capability Approach perspectives

Economists have devoted increasing attention to potentials of corporations as agents for fighting poverty in the developing world. This paper shows commonalities, differences, and complementarities of Walter Eucken’s “Ordoliberalismus” and the Capability Approach in order to conceptually identify the scope of these corporate potentials. First, Eucken’s perception of an optimal social policy and the underlying social questions are sketched out. All three major social questions classified by Eucken are highly relevant in the developing world. Then, these challenges are positioned within a Capability framework, followed by a discussion why corporate contributions against poverty will go well beyond income and commodity impacts. It is argued that modern development economics should devote more attention to traditional German “Ordoliberalismus” analyses of the interdependencies of economic and social order. This is necessary to establish a freedom-oriented concept of corporate potentials in the fight against poverty.