The idea that the State is, in a very general sense, responsible for the welfare of the people in terms of availability of goods and services, is probably as old as the State itself. How the State should organise the production and distribution of goods and services, however, is subject to time and ideological approach. Adam Smith has shown that the “welfare of the nations” does not presuppose a State that would itself produce and distribute all goods and services. Such a State would reduce rather than enhance the welfare of the people. The balance between economic activities of the State, on the one hand, and of private actors in the market, on the other, has been a matter of theoretical as well as political debate for centuries. The central question concerns the appropriate “economic constitution”. This question is the Leitmotiv of Ernst-JoachimMestmäcker in whose honour I am pleased to submit the following contribution.