Interdependence of orders
The interdependence of the orders is based on Walter Eucken’s theory of the social market economy .
Eucken demands that development economics concepts for shaping society must be based on the knowledge of mutual influence and the inseparable mutual penetration of the “orders”. These orders are in particular the social order, the economic order and the political order.
For Eucken, the freedom of the individual , power-sharing democracy and a competitive economy are dependent on each other and can only be realized in the long term together: According to Eucken, the freedom of the individual is always endangered where there is a concentration of power. At the same time, the development of positions of economic power (in cartels , monopolies and similar structures, but also in central administration economies ) inevitably leads to the undoing of democratic power control; conversely, economic freedom can only exist in the long term where there is also political freedom and democratic control of the state .