Third way (centrism)
This article is about a political philosophy; for other uses, see Third way (disambiguation).The
Third Way is a
centrist philosophy of governance that, at least from a traditional social democratic perspective, usually stands for
deregulation,
decentralization and lower
taxes. It is embodied by such figures as
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Tony Blair, former
President of the United States Bill Clinton, former
Chancellor of Germany Gerhard Schröder, former
Prime Minister of the Netherlands Wim Kok, former
Australian Leader of the Opposition
Mark Latham,
Chile's
Ricardo Lagos and
Brazil's
Fernando Henrique Cardoso.
The "Third Way" of the
United States Senate centrists, following
Bill Clinton's lead, emphasize governmental fiscal
conservatism, governmental action to replace
welfare and other social assistance programs with so-called
workfare, and a stronger preference for free markets. At the same time, such centrists seek to dissociate themselves from pure
laissez-faire economics and other
libertarian positions.
The general idea is included within
radical middle.
The term (and a variant,
Third Position) was first popularized by
Benito Mussolini in the 1920s to describe
Fascism, whose economic policy of
corporatism was seen as a solution to the perceived twin failures of
socialist attempts to develop a worker's
planned economy and of
laissez-faire capitalism. It has been argued by a minority of historians, like Mussolini biographer
Nicholas Farrell, that some modern Third Way doctrines and policies, like the self proclaimed Third Way of Singapore's
People's Action Party, the British
Labour Party's
public-private partnerships and
Lyndon B. Johnson's
Great Society strongly resemble some of the economic and social policies of the Italian Fascists in the 20s and early 30s.
The Third Way philosophy was developed further, Post-War, in the
1950s by German
ordoliberal economists such as
Wilhelm Röpke, resulting in the development of the concept of the
social market economy.
The term was appropriated by politicians in the
1990s who wished to incorporate Thatcher and Reagan's projects of economic deregulation, privatization, and
globalization into the mainstream
centre-left political parties (following the
crisis of socialism after the fall of the
Berlin Wall) so that in this context the
Third Way is usually understood as a nickname for
neoliberal social-economic
policy. As such, it has become an important
ideology in modern
European
democracies, especially by some
Social-Democratic parties, as well as for some members of the
United States Democratic Party (particularly, the
Democratic Leadership Council). It gets its name from its alleged role as an alternative to both pure, free market capitalism and the kind of economic order represented by strong welfare states such as the Scandinavian countries and Germany, which are held to be too regulated and taxed at rates that are too high to compete with economies run on free-market principles. Former Australian Treasurer
Paul Keating is often cited as a key proto-Third Way leader.
Historically, according to
Robert Putnam in the book
"Bowling Alone", the notion of building
social capital, a theme popular with Third Way politicians like Latham and Blair, has a historical preceedent in the
Progressive Era of the United States (defined as being after the
Gilded Age, covering the years between the
1870s and
1920s). (Bowling Alone, pp. 367-401) Putnam writes that "During the years from 1870 to 1920 civic inventiveness reached a crescendo unmatched in American history, not merely in numbers, but in the range and durability of the newly founded organisations... investment in social capital was not an alternative to, but a prerequisite for, political mobilization and reform" (Putnam, pp. 384, 399). Putnam, along with other academics including Ian Winter (Latham cites Winter's
"Social Capital and Public Policy in Australia" on p. 13 of the Latham diaries), and Mark Lyon are amongst a range of academics who have recently contributed key academic theory behind Third-Way politics. In 2004, several veteran U.S. Democrats founded a new Washington, DC organization entitled
Third Way, which bills itself as a "strategy center for progressives."
Third way is sometimes described as an idea of former
social-democrats which replaces
socialism with capitalism with a minimum of socialism, and a strategy to bring the social-democratic parties back to power where they have lost elections. Critics argue that third way politicians are in favour of ideas and policies that ultimately serve the interests of corporate power and the wealthy at the expense of the working class and the poor. Some also classify the Third Way as "neoliberalism with a social touch".
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Radical middle*
Centrism*
The Third Way by Anthony Giddens (ISBN 0745622674), followed by
The Third Way And Its Critics (ISBN 0745624502)
*
NEXUS Third Way Debate Summary*
Why Tony is not a guitar-wielding facist [sic dictator];
The Guardian,
July 1,
2003—about
Mussolini and Blair.
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Third Way a strategy center for U.S. progressives
*
Sourcewatch.org entry on the Third Way Foundation*
The Third Way - an Answer to Blair by Patrick Harrington
