Third Way

Not to be confused with Third camp, Third International Theory, or Third Position.
This article is about the political philosophy. For other uses, see Third Way (disambiguation).

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The Third Way, also known as Modernised Social Democracy,[1][page needed] is a predominantly centrist political position that attempts to reconcile centre-right and centre-left politics by synthesising a combination of economically liberal and social democratic economic policies.[2][3]

It is a reconceptualization of social democracy.[needs copy edit] It supports workfare instead of welfare, work training programs, educational opportunities and other government programs that give citizens a 'hand-up' instead of a 'hand-out'. The Third Way seeks a compromise between a less interventionist economic system as supported by neoliberals and Keynesian Social democratic spending policy supported by social democrats and progressives.

The Third Way was born from a reevaluation of political policies within various centre to centre-left progressive movements in the 1980s in response to doubt regarding the economic viability of the state and the perceived overuse of economic interventionist policies that had previously been popularised by Keynesianism, but which at that time contrasted with the rise of popularity for neoliberalism and the New Right starting in the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s.[4]

The Third Way has been promoted by social liberal[5] and social-democratic parties.[6] In the United States, a leading proponent of the Third Way was Bill Clinton, who served as the country's president from 1993 to 2001.[7] In the United Kingdom, Third Way social-democratic proponent Tony Blair claimed that the socialism he advocated was different from traditional conceptions of socialism and said: "My kind of socialism is a set of values based around notions of social justice. ... Socialism as a rigid form of economic determinism has ended, and rightly."[8] Blair referred to it as a "social-ism" involving politics that recognised individuals as socially interdependent and advocated social justice, social cohesion, equal worth of each citizen and equal opportunity.[9]

Third Way social-democratic interpreter Anthony Giddens has said that the Third Way rejects the state socialist conception of socialism and instead accepts the conception of socialism as conceived of by Anthony Crosland as an ethical doctrine that views social democratic governments as having achieved a viable ethical socialism by removing the unjust elements of capitalism by providing social welfare and other policies and that contemporary socialism has outgrown the Marxist claim for the need of the abolition of capitalism as a mode of production.[10] In 2009, Blair publicly declared support for a "new capitalism".[11]

Policies supported by self-purported Third Way supporters vary by region, political circumstances, and ideological leanings. Third Way advocates generally support public-private partnerships, a commitment to fiscal conservatism,[12] combining equality of opportunity with personal responsibility, improving human and social capital, and protection of the environment.[13] But even to these ends Third Way advocates differ due to conflicting priorities. Anthony Giddens for example called for abolishing the retirement age so people can exit the workforce whenever they save enough, believing society should be more inclusive to the elderly;[14] Emmanuel Macron did the exact opposite, raising the retirement age to balance the budget.[15] The Bill Clinton administration, influenced by the works of the controversial political scientist Charles Murray,[16] was less friendly to the welfare state than Tony Blair.[17]

The Third Way has been criticised by other social democrats, as well as anarchists, communists, and in particular democratic socialists as a betrayal of left-wing values,[18][19][20] with some analysts characterising the Third Way as an effectively neoliberal movement.[21] It has also been criticised by conservatives, classical liberals, and libertarians who advocate for laissez-faire capitalism.[22][23]

  1. ^ Giddens, Anthony (29 May 2013). The Third Way: The Renewal of Social Democracy. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-0-7456-6660-0.
  2. ^ Bobbio, Norberto; Cameron, Allan (1997). Left and Right: The Significance of a Political Distinction. University of Chicago Press. p. 8. ISBN 0-226-06245-7., ISBN 978-0-226-06245-7
  3. ^ "What is the Third Way?". BBC News. 27 September 1999. Archived from the original on 25 April 2011. Retrieved 16 June 2019.
  4. ^ Lewis & Surender 2004, pp. 3–4, 16.
  5. ^ Richardson, James L. (2001). Contending Liberalisms in World Politics: Ideology and Power. Lynne Rienner Publishers. p. 194.
  6. ^ Whyman, Philip (2005). Third Way Economics: Theory and Evaluation. Springer. ISBN 978-0-2305-1465-2.
  7. ^ Edsall, Thomas B. (28 June 1998). "Clinton and Blair Envision a 'Third Way' International Movement". The Washington Post. p. A24. Archived from the original on 13 December 2018. Retrieved 19 July 2020.
  8. ^ Hastings, Adrian; Mason, Alistair; Pyper, Hugh (2000). The Oxford Companion to Christian Thought. Oxford University Press. p. 677.
  9. ^ Freeden, Michael (2004). Liberal Languages: Ideological Imaginations and Twentieth-Century Progressive Thought. Princeton University Press. p. 198.
  10. ^ Giddens, Anthony (1994). Beyond Left and Right: The Future of Radical Politics. Cambridge, England, United Kingdom: Polity Press. pp. 71–72.
  11. ^ "Speech by Tony Blair at the 'New world, new capitalism' conference". Tony Blair Office. Archived from the original on 10 March 2013.
  12. ^ Schmidt, Ingo; Evans, Bryan, eds. (2012). Social democracy after the cold war. Edmonton, AB: AU Press. ISBN 978-1-926836-88-1.
  13. ^ Rosenau, Pauline Vaillancourt (2003). The Competition Paradigm: America's Romance with Conflict, Contest, and Commerce. Lanham, Maryland, United States; Oxford, England, United Kingdom: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. p. 209. ISBN 978-0-7425-2037-0.
  14. ^ Giddens 1998, pp. 120–121.
  15. ^ Cohen, Roger (16 March 2023). "Macron, Risking Backlash, Pushes Through Law Raising Retirement Age". The New York Times. New York, New York. Retrieved 24 July 2023.
  16. ^ "Welfare Reform Working Group, Talking Points: Response to Charles Murray" (PDF). Clinton Library. 3 May 1994. Archived from the original (PDF) on 16 September 2012. Retrieved 19 February 2014.
  17. ^ Steven Fielding The Labour Party: Continuity and Change in the making of new labour, Palgrave Macmillan, 2003, pp. 179-180, p.188 ISBN 0333973933
  18. ^ Black, Bill (28 March 2013). "Gender Wage Gap is Shrinking - Male Wages are Going Down". The Real News Network. Archived from the original on 9 July 2017. Retrieved 31 March 2013.
  19. ^ Black, Bill (10 January 2013). ""Third Way's" "Fresh Thinking": The EU Is Our Model for Austerity"". The Huffington Post. Archived from the original on 26 November 2020. Retrieved 10 January 2013.
  20. ^ Black, Bill (3 March 2013). "Seriously? New York Times Calls Wall Street Front Group "Center-Left"". AlterNet. Archived from the original on 15 August 2018. Retrieved 3 March 2013.
  21. ^ Barrientos & Powell 2004, pp. 9–26; Romano 2006; Hinnfors 2006; Lafontaine 2009; Corfe 2010
  22. ^ Bashan, Patrick (5 November 2002). "Is the Third Way at a Dead End?". Cato Institute. Archived from the original on 13 June 2007. Retrieved 7 July 2007.
  23. ^ Veal, A. J. (2010). Leisure, Sport and Tourism, Politics, Policy and Planning. pp. 34–35. ISBN 9781845935238. Archived from the original on 17 May 2022 – via Google Books.