Information about Third Way (centrism)

This article is about a political philosophy; for other uses, see Third way (disambiguation).

The Third Way, or Radical center, is a centrist political philosophy of governance that embraces a mix of market and interventionist philosophies. The Third Way rejects both socialism and laissez-faire approaches to economic governance, but chiefly stresses technological development, education, and competitive mechanisms to pursue economic progress and governmental objectives.^[1] Third way philosophies have been described as a synthesis of capitalism and socialism by its proponents.<ref name="Dale, R. (4 April, 2000). Thinking Ahead / Commentary : What the 'Third Way' Is Really About. <em>The International Herland.">Dale, R. (4 April, 2000). Thinking Ahead / Commentary : What a 'Third Way' Is Really About. The International Herland.. Retrieved on 2007-07-07.

Past invocations of a political 'third way' have included the Fabian Socialism, Keynesian economics, Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal, Italian fascism under Benito Mussolini,^[2] and Harold Macmillan's 1950s One Nation Conservatism.^[3] A "Third Way" approach has been adopted by some social democrats and social liberals in many Western liberal democracies.^[4] The most recent prominent examples being the Clinton Administration in the United States and the Labour Party government of the United Kindom under Tony Blair.

The third way has been criticized by some conservatives and libertarians who advocate laissez-faire capitalism.^[5]

Origins

The term Third Way has been used to explain a varity of political policies and ideology in the last few centuries. The term itself extends back at least a century, to when Pope Pius XI called for a Third Way between Socialism and Capitalism at the end of the 1800s.^[6] These ideas were implemented by both progressives and fascists in the early 20th Century. ^[7] The Third Way philosophy was extended in the 1950s by German ordoliberal economists such as Wilhelm Röpke, resulting in the development of the concept of the social market economy.

Modern usage

The term was later used by politicians in the 1990s who wished to incorporate Margaret Thatcher and Ronald 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).

In the last decade the Third Way can be defined as:

"something different and distinct from liberal capitalism with its unswerving belief in the merits of the free market and democratic socialism with its demand management and obsession with the state. The Third Way is in favour of growth, entrepeneurship, enterprise and wealth creation but it is also in favour of greater social justice and it sees the state playing a major role in bringing this about. So in the words of... Anthony Giddens of the LSE the Third Way rejects top down socialism as it rejects traditional neo liberalism."

– Report from the BBC, 1999^[8]

A leading defender of the spread of Third Way influence in modern democracies has been British sociologist Anthony Giddens. Giddens regularly expounds on Third Way philosophy through contributions to progressive policy think tank Policy Network. Robert Putnam, 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 on the subject.

Examples

The Third Way is currently prominent in Europe, but has adherents in the Americas and Asia. It is endorsed by some European social democratic parties, as well as by some members of the Democratic Party of the United States (see below). Former Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating is often cited as a key proto-Third Way leader.

Australia

Under the centre-left Australian Labor Party from 1983 to 1996, the Bob Hawke and Paul Keating governments pursued many economic policies associated with economic rationalism, such as floating the Australian Dollar in 1983, reductions in trade tariffs, taxation reforms, changing from centralised wage-fixing to enterprise bargaining, the privatisation of Qantas and Commonwealth Bank, and deregulating the banking system.

Prior to this, the Gough Whitlam Labor government from 1972 to 1975 changed from a democratic socialism platform to social democracy, their precursor to the party's "Third Way" policies. Under the Whitlam government tariffs across the board were cut by 25 percent after 23 years of Labor opposition.

United Kingdom

Former Prime Minister Tony Blair of the United Kingdom is cited as a Third Way politician.^{[9] [10]} Blair is a particular follower of the ideas of Anthony Giddens.^[11]

Harold Macmillan's book The Middle Way, first published in 1938, is also written from broadly this centrist position.

United States

In the United States, Third Way adherents emphasize fiscal conservatism, some replacement of welfare with workfare, and a stronger preference for market solutions to traditional problems (as in pollution markets), while rejecting pure laissez-faire economics and other libertarian positions. The Third Way style of governing was firmly adopted and partly redefined during the Administration of President Bill Clinton.^[12]

After Tony Blair came to power in the UK Clinton, Blair and other leading Third Way adherents organized conferences to promote the Third Way in 1997 at Chequers in England.^{[13] [14]} The Democratic Leadership Council are adherents of Third Way politics.^[15]

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."^[16]

Other

Other leaders who have adopted elements of the Third Way style of governance include Marianne Jelved of Denmark, Jean Chretien of Canada, François Bayrou of France, Gerhard Schröder of Germany^[17], Ferenc Gyurcsány of Hungary, Wim Kok of the Netherlands and Zafarullah Khan Jamali of Pakistan, whose book's preface was written by Anthony Giddens.

Criticism

In the 1920s, Ludwig von Mises, an Austrian School economist and classical liberal thinker, accused the "middle way" of mixing capitalism and socialism. In his book Liberalism Mises wrote, "There is simply no other choice than this: either to abstain from interference in the free play of the market, or to delegate the entire management of production and distribution to the government. Either capitalism or socialism: there exists no middle way."^[18] Advocates of laissez-faire capitalism continue to be staunch opponents of a mixed economy, the "third way." In 1990, after the fall of his country's communist government, Czechoslovakia's finance minister, Václav Klaus, declared, "We want a market economy without any adjectives. Any compromises with that will only fuzzy up the problems we have. To pursue a so-called Third Way is foolish. We had our experience with this in the 1960s when we looked for a socialism with a human face. It did not work, and we must be explicit that we are not aiming for a more efficient version of a system that has failed. The market is indivisible; it cannot be an instrument the hands of central planners."^[19] More recently, a critic of capitalist-socialist hybridization wrote, "Third-Way economics is merely another political trial balloon. The politicians are still simply trying to twist fattened, round socialism into a lean, square, free-market hole, mainly to solicit our vote."^[20]

Third way is sometimes described as an idea of former social-democrats which replaces socialism with capitalism and a minimum of socialism, and a strategy to bring the social-democratic parties back to power where they have lost elections. For example, Slavoj Zizek argues that the notion of the Third Way emerged as the only alternative to the victorious global capitalism and its notion of liberal democracy when the Second Way crumbled.^[21] 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 neosocialism or "neoliberalism with a social touch".^[22][23]

See also

• Radical middle
• Centre-Right
• Centrism
• Centrist Party (United States)

This entry is related to, but not included in the Political ideologies series or one of its sub-series. Other related articles can be found at the .

Notes

External links

• The Third Way by Anthony Giddens (ISBN 0-7456-2267-4), followed by The Third Way And Its Critics (ISBN 0-7456-2450-2)
• NEXUS Third Way Debate Summary
• Why Tony is not a guitar-wielding facist [sic] dictator; The Guardian, July 1, 2003—about Mussolini and Blair.
• 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
• Official website of Policy Network
• 'Left, Right and the Third Way' - on the third way's mix of left and right.
• The Third Way and Beyond: Criticisms, Futures, Alternatives book looks at criticism of the third way.

Criticism

Books

• Against the Third Way
• Is there a Third Way? - Essays on the Changing Direction of Socialist Thought

Web pages

• No Third Way
• Is the Third Way at a Dead End?
• The So-Called Third Way
• Europe's "New" Third Way
• 21st century democracy and the Third Way