Schmitt, ordoliberalism and Foucault's error

Using as a starting point Michel Foucault's genealogy of neoliberalism as found in Naissance de la biopolitique, this paper will claim that, had ordoliberalism been traced back to its foundational texts from the Weimar era (instead of using post-war works) Foucault would have: a) found the State to play a much more preeminent role for this new trend of liberalism, and b) noticed its inherent authoritarianism. Tracing this genealogy back to the 1930s we study in depth the common thesis that both jurist Carl Schmitt and the ordoliberals briefly shared: Strong State and sound economy. We conclude with an invitation to further study both the central role played by the State and authoritarianism in past and present neoliberalism.