Beyond the politics of extremes, social exclusion, isolation and despair

The Third Way philosophy seeks to adapt enduring progressive values to the new challenges of the Information Age. It rests on three cornerstones: the idea that government should promote equal opportunity for all while granting special privilege for none; an ethic of mutual responsibility that equally rejects the politics of entitlement and the politics of social abandonment; and a new approach to governing that empowers citizens to act for themselves.
Source: NDOL The Third Way Progressive Governance for the 21st Century by Roundtable Discussion

Will the concept of the "Third Way" develop into a viable socio-economic / political philosophy ... or will it remain the enduring legacy of President Bill Clinton and the New Democrats, and Prime Minister Tony Blair and The New Labour.

Main proponents of the "Third Way" Blair and Clinton

Send us your comments or publish an article for our newsletter.

"Outside the ranks of government, Prime Minister Tony Blair's most prominent academic admirer is Anthony Giddens, the director of the prestigious London School of Economics. As The Economist recently noted, Blair's Third Way philosophy of governance is "very much a work in progress," leaving it open to charges of "intellectual opportunism." Perhaps more than any other British intellectual, Giddens has strived to show that the Third Way is neither soggy centrism nor "Thatcherism with a human face."

Giddens argues that while Third Way politics "stands in the traditions" of European social democrats and American liberals, it transcends both "old-style social democracy" and its reliance on Keynesian economics as well as the New Right and its reliance on "market funda-mentalism." His writings, which clearly have influenced Blair, challenge some of the laziest orthodoxies of both political extremes.

Giddens' enthusiasm for Blair's Third Way is also evident in the number of academics at the London School of Economics who have played a role in shaping government policy. Economist Richard Layard, for instance, advises the government on welfare-to-work policies, and academic John Gray is a former Thatcherite turned eloquent exponent of New Labourism. The school also has a Center for the Analysis of Social Exclusion that monitors the government's Social Exclusion Unit.

Beyond academia, New Labour draws heavily on the ideas of the British left's three leading think tanks: the Fabian Society, the Institute for Public Policy Research, and Demos. Although Blair has friendly relations with all three (for instance, Matthew Taylor, head of the IPPR, was the Labour Party's assistant general secretary until 1998 and still writes speeches for the Prime Minister), the bonds are looser than the one between President Clinton and the New Democrats' Progressive Policy Institute."

Source: NDOL The Brains Behind Tony Blair by Robert Philpot

"Bill Clinton is the leader of the New Democrat movement in this country and the single person most responsible for the modernization of progressive politics all over the world. That is his legacy to our country -- and to the world." 

Source: The Third Way: Reshaping Politics throughout the World
By Al From

What is the Third Way?

The vision of those behind the Third Way is the need to move away from what they see as a sterile debate between left and right - between those who favour either the state or the free market doing everything. Instead, they are looking towards a new form of political philosophy that focuses on adapting economies and societies to the demands and pressures of globalisation. In practise, the idea emerged in the US in the 1980s when a group called the Democratic Leadership Council was set up be people worried that the Democratic Party had drifted too far to the left, and needed to be brought back into the centre to appeal to a wider constituency. This strategy culminated in 1992 when the Chairman of the DLC - Governor Bill Clinton - was elected President campaigning as a "New Democrat", stressing the themes of opportunity and responsibility and promoting programmes like welfare to work. Some of the slogans - as well as specific policies - were adopted in the UK by Tony Blair as Labour became New Labour.

Websites dedicated to The Third Way

New Democrats Online The Third Way

Distributivism and Catholic Social Teaching

DLC webcast

New Democrats Online The Democratic Leadership Council's Online Community

Fabian Society The Fabian Society is the UK's only membership based left of centre
think tank. Providing an arena for open-minded debate, the Society's
programme aims to explore the political ideas and the policy reforms
which will define progressive politics in the future.

The Third Way Debate From: London School of Economics and Political Science | By: Anthony Giddens : EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION | Anthony Giddens provides a penetrating corrective to common misperceptions about the Third Way. The Third Way does not refer to a political middle path between right and left. Rather, it is an overarching label used to refer to debates about the renewal of social democracy. In the age of globalisation and the knowledge economy, the traditional left has to rethink its political stance and solutions to perennial issues such as inequality, social exclusion and good governance. Giddens argues that the debate surrounding the Third Way is one effective way of approaching such questions.

New Democrats Online The Democratic Leadership Council's Online Community

• National Defense & Homeland Security
• Foreign Policy
• Economic & Fiscal Policy
• Trade & Global Markets
• The New Economy
• Technology & Innovation
• Energy
• Environment
• Health Care
• Education
• Work, Family & Community
• Citizenship & National Service
• Quality of Life
• Crime & Public Safety
• Politics
•  The Third Way
• The New Democrat Magazine Archives
• Idea of the Week- A New Economy Labor Movement
• Reinventing Unions
• Fathom The Source for Online Learning

Progressive Policy Institute

• Making the New Economy Grow- An Action Agenda
• Rules of the Road- Governing Principles for the New Economy
• The New Economy Index
• About the New Economy Task Force

Books

1.  The Third Way, New Politics for the New Century by Tony Blair
ISBN 0 716305887. Published by the Fabian Society, 11 Dartmouth Street, London SW1J 9BN
Website : http://www.fabian-society.org.uk

2.  The Third Way, The Renewal of Social Democracy by Anthony Giddens
ISBN 0-74562267-4. Published by Polity Press, 65 Bridge Street, Cambridge CB2 1UR
Website : http://www.polity.co.uk

Clinton on The Third Way

• The Labour Party - New Labour and the Third Way works
• Clinton Presidential Center

• REMARKS AS DELIVERED XIV INTERNATIONAL AIDS CONFERENCE
• REMARKS AS DELIVERED COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS
• REMARKS AS DELIVERED JAMES PARKS MORTON INTERFAITH DINNER
• REMARKS AS DELIVERED NATIONAL JEWISH DEMOCRATIC COUNCIL

• REMARKS AS DELIVERED UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY
• ISLAM AND AMERICA IN A GLOBAL WORLD
• REMARKS AS DELIVERED NATIONAL BAPTIST CONVENTION
• REMARKS AS DELIVERED TEL AVIV UNIVERSITY
• REMARKS AS DELIVERED UNIVERSITY OF JUDAISM
• REMARKS AS DELIVERED BBC RICHARD DIMBLEBY LECTURE
• REMARKS AS DELIVERED LONDON SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS
• REMARKS AS DELIVERED INTERNATIONAL PROFIT ASSOCIATES
• REMARKS AS DELIVERED CLINTON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY GROUNDBREAKING
• REMARKS AS DELIVERED HARVARD UNIVERSITY
• REMARKS AS DELIVERED PINPOINT/BRITISH COLUMBIA CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL CHARITY GALA
• REMARKS AS DELIVERED CALGARY RENAISSANCE CORPORATION
• GROUND BREAKING ANNOUNCEMENT FOR CLINTON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY
  
• REMARKS AS DELIVERED GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY
• REMARKS AS DELIVERED FORUM 2000 CONFERENCE PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC
  
• REMARKS AS DELIVERED YALE UNIVERSITY

Blair on The Third Way

'A Britain in which nobody is left behind'
Wednesday 18 September 2002
In a speech in the London borough of Hackney, the Prime Minister Tony Blair reaffirmed the government's commitment to tackle poverty and social exclusion. He said 'our aim is...to abolish child poverty in a generation, so that in time all can share in the nation's rising prosperity.'

Let us build a new political consensus
Tuesday 10 September 2002
Speech by the Prime Minister, Tony Blair, to the Trades Union Congress, Blackpool

We can only face these challenges together
Monday 2 September 2002
Prime Minister’s speech to the World Summit On Sustainable Development in Johannesburg