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{{Short description|Centrist political position}}
{{short description|Centrist political position}}
{{distinguish|Third camp|Third International Theory|Third Position}}
{{distinguish|Third camp|Third International Theory|Third Position}}
{{about|the political philosophy|other uses|Third Way (disambiguation)}}
{{about|the political philosophy|other uses|Third Way (disambiguation)}}
{{Use British English|date=May 2019}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2023}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2023}}
{{use British English|date=May 2019}}
{{multiple image
{{liberalism sidebar}}
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{{social democracy sidebar}}
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{{neoliberalism sidebar}}
| image1            = Bill Clinton Portrait (3x4 cropped).jpg
| image2            = Tony Blair (2010) (3x4 cropped).jpg
| image3            = Jean Chrétien 1993.jpg
| image4            = 2004-09-13, El canciller de Alemania (cropped).jpg
| footer            = (from left to right, top to bottom) [[Bill Clinton]], [[Tony Blair]], [[Jean Chrétien]], and [[Gerhard Schröder]] were affiliated with the Third Way movement.}}
{{social democracy sidebar|ideologies}}
{{Neoliberalism sidebar|movements}}
The '''Third Way''' 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]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bobbio |first1=Norberto |last2=Cameron |first2=Allan |date=1997 |title=[[Left and Right: The Significance of a Political Distinction]] |publisher=[[University of Chicago Press]] |page=8 |isbn=0-226-06245-7}}, {{ISBN|978-0-226-06245-7}}</ref><ref name="BBC">{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/458626.stm |title=What is the Third Way? |publisher=[[BBC News]] |date=27 September 1999 |access-date=16 June 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110425141440/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/458626.stm |archive-date=25 April 2011}}</ref>


The '''Third Way''' is a [[centrist]] [[political position]] that attempts to reconcile [[right-wing]] and [[left-wing]] politics by advocating a varying synthesis of [[centre-right]] [[economic policies]] with [[centre-left]] [[social policies]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bobbio |first1=Norberto |last2=Cameron |first2=Allan |date=1997 |title=Left and Right: The Significance of A Political Distinction |publisher=[[University of Chicago Press]] |page=8 |isbn=0-226-06245-7}}, {{ISBN|978-0-226-06245-7}}</ref><ref name="BBC">{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/458626.stm |title=What is the Third Way? |work=[[BBC News]] |date=27 September 1999 |access-date=16 June 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110425141440/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/458626.stm |archive-date=25 April 2011}}</ref> The Third Way was born from a re-evaluation of political policies within various centre to centre-left [[Progressivism|progressive]] movements in the 1980s in response to doubt regarding the economic viability of the state and the perceived overuse of [[Economic interventionism|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.{{sfn|Lewis|Surender|2004|pp=3–4, 16}}
The Third Way is a reconceptualisation of [[social democracy]]. It supports [[workfare]] instead of [[welfare spending|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 [[Neoliberalism|neoliberals]] and [[Keynesian economics|Keynesian]] [[Social democracy|social democratic]] spending policy supported by social democrats and [[progressivism|progressives]].


The Third Way has been promoted by [[social liberal]]<ref>{{cite book |last=Richardson |first=James L. |date=2001 |title=Contending Liberalisms in World Politics: Ideology and Power |publisher=Lynne Rienner Publishers |page=194}}</ref> and [[social-democratic]] parties.<ref name="Whyman 2005">{{cite book |last=Whyman |first=Philip |date=2005 |title=Third Way Economics: Theory and Evaluation |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-0-2305-1465-2}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite news |last=Edsall |first=Thomas B. |date=28 June 1998 |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1998/06/28/clinton-and-blair-envision-a-third-way-international-movement/0bc00486-bd6d-4da4-a970-5255d7aa25d8/ |title=Clinton and Blair Envision a 'Third Way' International Movement |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |page=A24 |access-date=19 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181213150257/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1998/06/28/clinton-and-blair-envision-a-third-way-international-movement/0bc00486-bd6d-4da4-a970-5255d7aa25d8/ |archive-date=13 December 2018}}</ref> 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]].&nbsp;... Socialism as a rigid form of [[economic determinism]] has ended, and rightly."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hastings |first1=Adrian |last2=Mason |first2=Alistair |last3=Pyper |first3=Hugh |date=2000 |title=The Oxford Companion to Christian Thought |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |page=677}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite book |last=Freeden |first=Michael |date=2004 |title=Liberal Languages: Ideological Imaginations and Twentieth-Century Progressive Thought |publisher=[[Princeton University Press]] |page=198}}</ref>
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 interventionism|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.{{sfn|Lewis|Surender|2004|pp=3–4, 16}}


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]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Giddens |first=Anthony |author-link=Anthony Giddens |date=1994 |title=Beyond Left and Right: The Future of Radical Politics |location=Cambridge, England, United Kingdom |publisher=[[Polity Press]] |pages=71–72}}</ref> In 2009, Blair publicly declared support for a "new capitalism".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.tonyblairoffice.org/speeches/entry/speech-by-tony-blair-at-the-new-world-new-capitalism-conference/ |title=Speech by Tony Blair at the 'New world, new capitalism' conference |publisher=Tony Blair Office |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130310133446/http://www.tonyblairoffice.org/speeches/entry/speech-by-tony-blair-at-the-new-world-new-capitalism-conference/ |archive-date=10 March 2013}}</ref>
The Third Way has been promoted by [[social liberal]]<ref>{{cite book |last=Richardson |first=James L. |date=2001 |title=Contending Liberalisms in World Politics: Ideology and Power |publisher=Lynne Rienner Publishers |page=194}}</ref> and social-democratic parties.<ref name="Whyman 2005">{{cite book |last=Whyman |first=Philip |date=2005 |title=Third Way Economics: Theory and Evaluation |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-0-2305-1465-2}}</ref> In the United States, a leading proponent of the Third Way was President [[Bill Clinton]].<ref>{{cite news |last=Edsall |first=Thomas B. |date=28 June 1998 |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1998/06/28/clinton-and-blair-envision-a-third-way-international-movement/0bc00486-bd6d-4da4-a970-5255d7aa25d8/ |title=Clinton and Blair Envision a 'Third Way' International Movement |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |page=A24 |access-date=19 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181213150257/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1998/06/28/clinton-and-blair-envision-a-third-way-international-movement/0bc00486-bd6d-4da4-a970-5255d7aa25d8/ |archive-date=13 December 2018}}</ref> 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]].&nbsp;... Socialism as a rigid form of [[economic determinism]] has ended, and rightly."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hastings |first1=Adrian |last2=Mason |first2=Alistair |last3=Pyper |first3=Hugh |date=2000 |title=The Oxford Companion to Christian Thought |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |page=677}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite book |last=Freeden |first=Michael |date=2004 |title=Liberal Languages: Ideological Imaginations and Twentieth-Century Progressive Thought |publisher=[[Princeton University Press]] |page=198}}</ref>


Policies supported by self-purported Third Way supporters vary by region, political circumstances, and ideological leanings. Third Way advocates generally support [[Public–private partnership|public-private partnerships]], a [[Fiscal conservatism|commitment to balanced budgets]], combining [[Equal opportunity|equality of opportunity]] with [[Moral responsibility|personal responsibility]], improving [[human capital|human]] and [[social capital]], and [[Environmental protection|protection of the environment]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Rosenau |first=Pauline Vaillancourt |date=2003 |title=The Competition Paradigm: America's Romance with Conflict, Contest, and Commerce |location=Lanham, Maryland, United States; Oxford, England, United Kingdom |publisher=[[Rowman & Littlefield]] Publishers |page=209 |isbn=978-0-7425-2037-0}}</ref> 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;{{sfn|Giddens|1998|pp=120–121}} [[Emmanuel Macron]] did the exact opposite, raising the retirement age to balance the budget.<ref>{{cite news |last= Cohen |first= Roger |date= March 16, 2023 |title= Macron, Risking Backlash, Pushes Through Law Raising Retirement Age |url= https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/16/world/europe/macron-france-pension.html |work= [[The New York Times]] |location= New York, New York |access-date= 24 July 2023}}</ref> The [[Presidency of Bill Clinton|Bill Clinton administration]], influenced by the works of the controversial political scientist [[Charles Murray (political scientist)|Charles Murray]],<ref>{{cite web|url = http://www.clintonlibrary.gov/assets/storage/Research%20-%20Digital%20Library/Reed-Welfare1/20/612964-meetings-2.pdf|title = Welfare Reform Working Group, Talking Points: Response to Charles Murray|date = May 3, 1994|accessdate = February 19, 2014|publisher = [[Clinton Library]]|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120916130612/http://www.clintonlibrary.gov/assets/storage/Research%20-%20Digital%20Library/Reed-Welfare1/20/612964-meetings-2.pdf|archive-date = September 16, 2012|url-status = dead}}</ref> was less friendly to the welfare state than Tony Blair.<ref>Steven Fielding ''The Labour Party: Continuity and Change in the making of new labour'', Palgrave Macmillan, 2003, pp. 179-180, p.188 {{ISBN|0333973933}}</ref>
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]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Giddens |first=Anthony |date=1994 |title=Beyond Left and Right: The Future of Radical Politics |location=Cambridge |publisher=[[Polity Press]] |pages=71–72}}</ref> In 2009, Blair publicly declared support for a "new capitalism".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.tonyblairoffice.org/speeches/entry/speech-by-tony-blair-at-the-new-world-new-capitalism-conference/ |title=Speech by Tony Blair at the 'New world, new capitalism' conference |publisher=Tony Blair Office |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130310133446/http://www.tonyblairoffice.org/speeches/entry/speech-by-tony-blair-at-the-new-world-new-capitalism-conference/ |archive-date=10 March 2013}}</ref>


The Third Way has been criticised by other social democrats, as well as [[Anarchism|anarchists]], [[Communism|communists]], and in particular [[Democratic socialism|democratic socialists]] as a betrayal of left-wing values,<ref name="Bill-Black-TRNN-2013-03-31">{{cite news |author-link=William K. Black |last=Black |first=Bill |date=28 March 2013 |url=http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=9976 |title=Gender Wage Gap is Shrinking - Male Wages are Going Down |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170709154500/http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=9976 |archive-date=9 July 2017 |work=[[The Real News Network]] |access-date=31 March 2013}}</ref><ref name="Bill-Black-HuffPo-2013-01-10">{{cite news |author-link=William K. Black |last=Black |first=Bill |date=10 January 2013 |url=https://www.huffpost.com/entry/third-way-austerity_b_2448823 |title="Third Way's" "Fresh Thinking": The EU Is Our Model for Austerity" |work=[[The Huffington Post]] |access-date=10 January 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201126215435/https://www.huffpost.com/entry/third-way-austerity_b_2448823 |archive-date=26 November 2020}}</ref><ref name="Bill-Black-AlterNet-2013-03-03">{{cite news |author-link=William K. Black |last=Black |first=Bill |date=3 March 2013 |url=http://www.alternet.org/economy/seriously-new-york-times-calls-wall-street-front-group-center-left?akid=10276.215495.rFHl2T&rd=1&src=newsletter818889&t=11&paging=off |title=Seriously? New York Times Calls Wall Street Front Group "Center-Left" |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180815131537/https://www.alternet.org/economy/seriously-new-york-times-calls-wall-street-front-group-center-left?akid=10276.215495.rFHl2T&rd=1&src=newsletter818889&t=11&paging=off |archive-date=15 August 2018 |work=[[AlterNet]] |access-date=3 March 2013}}</ref> with some analysts characterising the Third Way as an effectively neoliberal movement.<ref name="Collection 1">{{harvnb|Barrientos|Powell|2004|pp=9–26}}; {{harvnb|Romano|2006}}; {{harvnb|Hinnfors|2006}}; {{harvnb|Lafontaine|2009}}; {{harvnb|Corfe|2010}}</ref> It has also been criticised by certain [[Liberal conservatism|conservatives]], [[Classical liberalism|classical liberals]], and [[Right-libertarianism|libertarians]] who advocate for ''[[laissez-faire]]'' [[capitalism]].<ref name="Bashan 2002">{{cite web |url=http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=4173 |last=Bashan |first=Patrick |date=5 November 2002 |title=Is the Third Way at a Dead End? |publisher=[[Cato Institute]] |access-date=7 July 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070613001847/http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=4173 |archive-date=13 June 2007}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Veal |first=A. J. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UMgUbiRLtOwC&pg=PA35 |title=Leisure, Sport and Tourism, Politics, Policy and Planning |year=2010 |pages=34–35 |isbn=9781845935238 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220517175038/https://books.google.com/books?id=UMgUbiRLtOwC&pg=PA35 |archive-date=17 May 2022 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref>
Policies supported by self-described Third Way supporters vary by region, political circumstances, and ideological leanings. Third Way advocates generally support [[public-private partnerships]], a commitment to [[fiscal conservatism]],<ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=Schmidt |editor1-first=Ingo |editor2-last=Evans |editor2-first=Bryan |title=Social democracy after the cold war |publisher=AU Press |location=Edmonton, AB |date=2012 |isbn=978-1-926836-88-1}}</ref> combining [[Equal opportunity|equality of opportunity]] with [[Moral responsibility|personal responsibility]], improving [[Human capital|human]] and [[social capital]], and [[protection of the environment]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Rosenau |first=Pauline Vaillancourt |title=The Competition Paradigm: America's Romance with Conflict, Contest, and Commerce |location=Lanham, MD / Oxford |publisher=[[Rowman & Littlefield]] |date=2003 |page=209 |isbn=978-0-7425-2037-0}}</ref> But even in pursuit of these ends, Third Way advocates differ in their policies, owing to conflicting priorities. Anthony Giddens, for example – believing that society should be more inclusive to the elderly – called for abolishing the retirement age so people could exit the workforce whenever they have saved enough;{{sfn|Giddens|1998|pp=120–121}} French president [[Emmanuel Macron]] did the exact opposite, raising the retirement age to balance the budget.<ref>{{cite news |last=Cohen |first=Roger |title=Macron, Risking Backlash, Pushes Through Law Raising Retirement Age |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/16/world/europe/macron-france-pension.html |work=[[The New York Times]] |location=New York City |date=16 March 2023 |access-date=24 July 2023}}</ref> The [[Presidency of Bill Clinton|Bill Clinton administration]], influenced by the works of the controversial political scientist [[Charles Murray (political scientist)|Charles Murray]],<ref>{{cite web |title=Welfare Reform Working Group, Talking Points: Response to Charles Murray |url=http://www.clintonlibrary.gov/assets/storage/Research%20-%20Digital%20Library/Reed-Welfare1/20/612964-meetings-2.pdf |url-status=dead |publisher=[[Clinton Library]] |date=3 May 1994 |access-date=19 February 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120916130612/http://www.clintonlibrary.gov/assets/storage/Research%20-%20Digital%20Library/Reed-Welfare1/20/612964-meetings-2.pdf |archive-date=16 September 2012}}</ref> was less friendly to the welfare state than Tony Blair.<ref>Steven Fielding, ''The Labour Party: Continuity and Change in the making of new labour'', Palgrave Macmillan, 2003, pp. 179–180, p.188 {{ISBN|0333973933}}</ref>
 
The Third Way has been criticised by other social democrats, as well as [[anarchists]], [[communist]]s, and in particular [[democratic socialist]]s as a betrayal of left-wing values,<ref name="Bill-Black-TRNN-2013-03-31">{{cite news |author-link=William K. Black |last=Black |first=Bill |date=28 March 2013 |url=http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=9976 |title=Gender Wage Gap is Shrinking Male Wages are Going Down |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170709154500/http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=9976 |archive-date=9 July 2017 |work=[[The Real News Network]] |access-date=31 March 2013}}</ref><ref name="Bill-Black-HuffPo-2013-01-10">{{cite news |last=Black |first=Bill |date=10 January 2013 |url=https://www.huffpost.com/entry/third-way-austerity_b_2448823 |title="Third Way's" "Fresh Thinking": The EU Is Our Model for Austerity" |work=[[The Huffington Post]] |access-date=10 January 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201126215435/https://www.huffpost.com/entry/third-way-austerity_b_2448823 |archive-date=26 November 2020}}</ref><ref name="Bill-Black-AlterNet-2013-03-03">{{cite news |last=Black |first=Bill |date=3 March 2013 |url=http://www.alternet.org/economy/seriously-new-york-times-calls-wall-street-front-group-center-left?akid=10276.215495.rFHl2T&rd=1&src=newsletter818889&t=11&paging=off |title=Seriously? New York Times Calls Wall Street Front Group "Center-Left" |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180815131537/https://www.alternet.org/economy/seriously-new-york-times-calls-wall-street-front-group-center-left?akid=10276.215495.rFHl2T&rd=1&src=newsletter818889&t=11&paging=off |archive-date=15 August 2018 |work=[[AlterNet]] |access-date=3 March 2013}}</ref> with some political scientists and analysts characterising the Third Way as an effectively neoliberal movement.<ref name="Collection 1">{{harvnb|Barrientos|Powell|2004|pp=9–26}}; {{harvnb|Romano|2006}}; {{harvnb|Hinnfors|2006}}; {{harvnb|Lafontaine|2009}}; {{harvnb|Corfe|2010}}</ref> It has also been criticised by [[Liberal conservatism|conservatives]], [[nationalists]], [[classical liberal]]s, and [[Right-libertarianism|libertarians]] who advocate for ''[[laissez-faire]]'' [[capitalism]].<ref name="Bashan 2002">{{cite web |url=http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=4173 |last=Bashan |first=Patrick |date=5 November 2002 |title=Is the Third Way at a Dead End? |publisher=[[Cato Institute]] |access-date=7 July 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070613001847/http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=4173 |archive-date=13 June 2007}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Veal |first=A.J. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UMgUbiRLtOwC&pg=PA35 |title=Leisure, Sport and Tourism, Politics, Policy and Planning |year=2010 |pages=34–35 |isbn=9781845935238 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220517175038/https://books.google.com/books?id=UMgUbiRLtOwC&pg=PA35 |archive-date=17 May 2022 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref>


== Overview ==
== Overview ==
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During the [[Prague Spring]] of 1968, reform economist [[Ota Šik]] proposed third way economic reform as part of political [[liberalisation]] and [[democratisation]] within the country. In historical context, such proposals were better described as liberalised [[centrally-planned economy]] rather than the socially-sensitive capitalism that Third Way policies tend to have been identified with in the West. In the 1970s and 1980s, [[Enrico Berlinguer]], leader of the [[Italian Communist Party]], came to advocate a vision of a socialist society that was more pluralist than the [[real socialism]] which was typically advocated by [[official communist]] parties whilst being more economically egalitarian than social democracy. This was part of the wider trend of [[Eurocommunism]] in the communist movement and provided a theoretical basis for Berlinguer's pursuit of the [[Historic Compromise]] with the [[Christian Democracy (Italy)|Christian Democrats]].<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Sassoon |first=Donald |date=July 1984 |title=Berlinguer: architect of Eurocommunism |url=http://banmarchive.org.uk/collections/mt/pdf/84_07_14.pdf |magazine=[[Marxism Today]] |publisher=[[Communist Party of Great Britain]] |access-date=14 November 2016}}</ref>
During the [[Prague Spring]] of 1968, reform economist [[Ota Šik]] proposed third way economic reform as part of political [[liberalisation]] and [[democratisation]] within the country. In historical context, such proposals were better described as liberalised [[centrally-planned economy]] rather than the socially-sensitive capitalism that Third Way policies tend to have been identified with in the West. In the 1970s and 1980s, [[Enrico Berlinguer]], leader of the [[Italian Communist Party]], came to advocate a vision of a socialist society that was more pluralist than the [[real socialism]] which was typically advocated by [[official communist]] parties whilst being more economically egalitarian than social democracy. This was part of the wider trend of [[Eurocommunism]] in the communist movement and provided a theoretical basis for Berlinguer's pursuit of the [[Historic Compromise]] with the [[Christian Democracy (Italy)|Christian Democrats]].<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Sassoon |first=Donald |date=July 1984 |title=Berlinguer: architect of Eurocommunism |url=http://banmarchive.org.uk/collections/mt/pdf/84_07_14.pdf |magazine=[[Marxism Today]] |publisher=[[Communist Party of Great Britain]] |access-date=14 November 2016}}</ref>
[[Harold Macmillan]], British Prime Minister from 1957 to 1963, based his philosophy of government on what he summarised in the 1938 book ''[[The Middle Way (book)|The Middle Way]]''.{{sfn|Macmillan|1939}}


=== Modern usage ===
=== Modern usage ===
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In ''The Third Way'', Giddens provides the framework within which the Third Way, also termed by Giddens as the ''[[Radical center (politics)|radical centre]]'', is justified. In addition, it supplies a broad range of policy proposals aimed at what Giddens calls the "[[Progressivism|progressive]] [[centre-left]]" in British politics.{{sfn|Giddens|1998|pp=44–46}}
In ''The Third Way'', Giddens provides the framework within which the Third Way, also termed by Giddens as the ''[[Radical center (politics)|radical centre]]'', is justified. In addition, it supplies a broad range of policy proposals aimed at what Giddens calls the "[[Progressivism|progressive]] [[centre-left]]" in British politics.{{sfn|Giddens|1998|pp=44–46}}


During his [[Bill Clinton 1992 presidential campaign|1992 presidential campaign]], [[Bill Clinton]] espoused the ideas of the Third Way.<ref>{{cite news |last=Kelly |first=Michael |date=26 September 1992 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/09/26/us/1992-campaign-democrats-clinton-says-he-s-not-leaning-left-but-taking-new-third.html |title=The 1992 Campaign: The Democrats; Clinton Says He's Not Leaning Left but Taking a New 'Third Way' |work=[[The New York Times]] |page=7 |access-date=10 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190301094321/https://www.nytimes.com/1992/09/26/us/1992-campaign-democrats-clinton-says-he-s-not-leaning-left-but-taking-new-third.html |archive-date=1 March 2019}}</ref>
[[Bill Clinton]] espoused the ideas of the Third Way during [[Bill Clinton 1992 presidential campaign|his 1992 presidential campaign]].<ref>{{cite news |last=Kelly |first=Michael |date=26 September 1992 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/09/26/us/1992-campaign-democrats-clinton-says-he-s-not-leaning-left-but-taking-new-third.html |title=The 1992 Campaign: The Democrats; Clinton Says He's Not Leaning Left but Taking a New 'Third Way' |work=[[The New York Times]] |page=7 |access-date=10 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190301094321/https://www.nytimes.com/1992/09/26/us/1992-campaign-democrats-clinton-says-he-s-not-leaning-left-but-taking-new-third.html |archive-date=1 March 2019}}</ref>


The Third Way has been defined as such: <blockquote>[S]omething 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, entrepreneurship, 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.{{sfn|Arora|2010|pp=9, 22}}<ref name="BBC" /></blockquote>
The Third Way has been defined as such: <blockquote>[S]omething 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, entrepreneurship, 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.{{sfn|Arora|2010|pp=9, 22}}<ref name="BBC" /></blockquote>
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The Third Way has been advocated by its proponents as a "radical-centrist" alternative to both capitalism and what it regards as the traditional forms of socialism, including [[Socialism (Marxism)|Marxian]] and [[state socialism]].{{sfn|Arora|2010|pp=9, 22}} It advocates [[ethical socialism]], [[reformism]] and [[gradualism]] that includes advocating the humanisation of [[capitalism]], a [[mixed economy]], [[Pluralism (political theory)|political pluralism]] and [[liberal democracy]].{{sfn|Arora|2010|pp=9, 22}}
The Third Way has been advocated by its proponents as a "radical-centrist" alternative to both capitalism and what it regards as the traditional forms of socialism, including [[Socialism (Marxism)|Marxian]] and [[state socialism]].{{sfn|Arora|2010|pp=9, 22}} It advocates [[ethical socialism]], [[reformism]] and [[gradualism]] that includes advocating the humanisation of [[capitalism]], a [[mixed economy]], [[Pluralism (political theory)|political pluralism]] and [[liberal democracy]].{{sfn|Arora|2010|pp=9, 22}}


The Third Way has been often hard to holistically summarize, partly due to its flexible nature of putting ends before means, that is prioritizing achieving social justice rather than focusing on the means by which one achieves social justice. Often sighted as the easiest summary of the Third Way is 'rights with responsibilities', suggesting that people have a right to, for instance, education, they have a responsibility to put effort towards achieving good grades. On economics specifically, a great deal of emphasize of the Third Way is placed on tax revenue, and the means by which it is generated. The Third Way argues that wealth must be enticed in a globalized economy, and that any capital flight caused by high taxes is counterintuitive to generating tax revenue, as said tax revenue will be lost. The Third Way argues that growth is the best way to raise tax revenue, and that growth can be achieved through a free market economy, fiscal discipline and a healthy human capital stock.
The Third Way has been often hard to holistically summarise, partly due to its flexible nature of putting ends before means, that is prioritising achieving social justice rather than focusing on the methods by which one achieves social justice. Often cited as the easiest summary of the Third Way is 'rights with responsibilities' – for example, pairing the [[right to education]] with the responsibility to put effort towards achieving good grades. On economics specifically, a great deal of the emphasis of the Third Way is placed on tax revenue, and the means by which it is generated. The Third Way argues that wealth must be enticed in a globalised economy, and that any [[capital flight]] caused by high taxes is counterproductive to generating tax revenue, for future tax revenue will be lost. The Third Way argues that growth is the best way to raise tax revenue, and that growth can be achieved through a free market economy, fiscal discipline and a healthy human capital stock.


=== Within social democracy ===
=== Within social democracy ===
The Third Way has been advocated by proponents as competition socialism, an ideology in between traditional socialism and capitalism.<ref>{{cite book |last=Döring |first=Daniel |date=2007 |title=Is 'Third Way' Social Democracy Still a Form of Social Democracy? |location=Norderstedt, Germany |publisher=GRIN Verlag |page=3}}</ref> Anthony Giddens, a prominent proponent of the Third Way, has publicly supported a modernised form of socialism within the social democracy movement, but he claims that traditional socialist ideology (referring to state socialism) that involves economic management and planning are flawed and states that as a theory of the managed economy it barely exists any longer.{{sfn|Romano|2006}}
The Third Way has been advocated by proponents as competition socialism, an ideology in between traditional socialism and capitalism.<ref>{{cite book |last=Döring |first=Daniel |date=2007 |title=Is 'Third Way' Social Democracy Still a Form of Social Democracy? |location=Norderstedt, Germany |publisher=GRIN Verlag |page=3}}</ref> Anthony Giddens, a prominent proponent of the Third Way, has publicly endorsed a modernised form of socialism within the social democracy movement. However, he argues that traditional socialist ideology, specifically referring to state socialism involving economic management and planning, is flawed. Giddens asserts that as a theory of the managed economy, it barely exists any longer.{{sfn|Romano|2006}}


In defining the Third Way, [[Tony Blair]] once wrote: "The Third Way stands for a modernised social democracy, passionate in its commitment to social justice".<ref>{{cite book |last=Lowe |first=Rodney |date=1993 |title=The Welfare State in Britain Since 1945 |publisher=[[Palgrave-MacMillan|Palgrave]] |isbn=978-1403911933}}</ref>
In defining the Third Way, [[Tony Blair]] once wrote: "The Third Way stands for a modernised social democracy, passionate in its commitment to social justice".<ref>{{cite book |last=Lowe |first=Rodney |date=1993 |title=The Welfare State in Britain Since 1945 |publisher=[[Palgrave-MacMillan|Palgrave]] |isbn=978-1403911933}}</ref>
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== History ==
== History ==
=== Australia ===
=== Australia ===
[[File:Hawke Bob BANNER.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Bob Hawke]], who along with [[Paul Keating]] laid the groundwork to both [[New Democrats]] and [[New Labour]] as well as Third Way politics]]
[[File:Hawke Bob BANNER.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Bob Hawke]], who along with his successor [[Paul Keating]] laid the groundwork to both [[New Democrats (United States)|New Democrats]] and [[New Labour]] as well as Third Way politics]]
Under the nominally [[centre-left]] [[Australian Labor Party]] (ALP) from 1983 to 1996, the [[Bob Hawke]] and [[Paul Keating]] governments pursued many economic policies associated with [[economic rationalism]] such as [[Floating currency|floating]] the [[Australian Dollar]] in 1983, reductions in trade [[tariff]]s, [[Tax reform|taxation reforms]], changing from centralised [[Price controls|wage-fixing]] to [[Enterprise Bargaining Agreement|enterprise bargaining]], heavy restrictions on [[trade union]] activities including on [[strike action]] and [[pattern bargaining]], the [[privatisation]] of government-run services and enterprises such as [[Qantas]] and the [[Commonwealth Bank]] and wholesale [[deregulation]] of the [[banking system]]. Keating also proposed a [[Goods and Services Tax (Australia)|Goods and Services Tax]] (GST) in 1985, but this was scrapped due to its unpopularity amongst both ALP and electorate. The party also desisted from other reforms such as wholesale [[labour market]] deregulation, the eventual GST, the privatisation of [[Telstra]] and [[welfare reform]]. The Hawke-Keating governments have been considered by some as laying the groundwork for the later development of both the [[New Democrats]] in the United States and [[New Labour]] in the United Kingdom.<ref name="Lavelle 2005">{{cite journal |title=Social Democrats and Neo-Liberalism: A Case Study of the Australian Labor Party |last=Lavelle |first=Ashley |journal=Political Studies |date=1 December 2005 |volume=53 |issue=4 |pages=753–771 |doi=10.1111/j.1467-9248.2005.00555.x |s2cid=144842245}}</ref><ref name="Humphrys 2018">{{cite book |last=Humphrys |first=Elizabeth |title=How Labour Built Neoliberalism: Australia's Accord, the Labour Movement and the Neoliberal Project |date=8 October 2018 |publisher=Brill Academic Publishers |isbn=978-90-04-38346-3 |author-link=Elizabeth Humphrys}}</ref> One political commentator agreed that it led [[centre-left]] parties towards the path to [[neoliberalism]].<ref>{{cite news |last=Badham |first=Van |date=6 April 2017 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/apr/06/australian-labor-led-centre-left-parties-into-neoliberalism-can-they-lead-it-out |title=Australian Labor led centre-left parties into neoliberalism. Can they lead it out? |work=[[The Guardian]] |access-date=15 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170508012515/https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/apr/06/australian-labor-led-centre-left-parties-into-neoliberalism-can-they-lead-it-out |archive-date=8 May 2017}}</ref> Meanwhile, others, particularly former Labor MP and current National President [[Wayne Swan]], acknowledge several neoliberal reforms, but at the same time disagreed and focused on the prosperity and social equality that they provided in the "26 years of uninterrupted economic growth since 1991", seeing it as fitting well within "Australian Laborism".<ref name="Swan">{{cite news |last=Swan |first=Wayne |author-link=Wayne Swan |date=13 May 2017 |url=http://theconversation.com/was-embracing-the-market-a-necessary-evil-for-labour-and-labor-81612 |title=Was embracing the market a necessary evil for Labour and Labor? |work=[[The Conversation (website)|The Conversation]] |access-date=15 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181117021222/http://theconversation.com/was-embracing-the-market-a-necessary-evil-for-labour-and-labor-81612 |archive-date=17 November 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Jacotine |first=Keshia |date=25 August 2017 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/may/14/the-hawke-keating-agenda-was-laborism-not-neoliberalism-and-is-still-a-guiding-light |title=The Hawke-Keating agenda was Laborism, not neoliberalism, and is still a guiding light |work=[[The Guardian]] |access-date=15 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170604190440/https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/may/14/the-hawke-keating-agenda-was-laborism-not-neoliberalism-and-is-still-a-guiding-light |archive-date=4 June 2017}}</ref> Swan also mentioned the fact that the policies and reforms of the Hawke–Keating governments, described as Third Way, predated the idea by a decade or more.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.alp.org.au/national-president-media/australian-laborism-the-way-ahead/ |title=Australian Laborism: The Way Ahead |last=Swan |first=Wayne |author-link=Wayne Swan |date= |website=alp.org.au |publisher=[[Australian Labor Party]] (ALP) |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210311161006/https://www.alp.org.au/national-president-media/australian-laborism-the-way-ahead/ |archive-date=11 March 2021 |quote=The Hawke-Keating economic reforms should be more appropriately described as Australian Laborism, and nothing like the Third Way ideology embraced by some US Democrats and some in British Labour. We were first. And we did it our way, the Australian Labor way. We led the way, forcing the conservatives into policy retreat and to fight the battles on our turf. }}</ref>
Under the [[centre-left]] [[Australian Labor Party]] (ALP) from 1983 to 1996, the [[Bob Hawke]] and [[Paul Keating]] governments pursued many economic policies associated with [[economic rationalism]] such as [[Floating currency|floating]] the [[Australian Dollar]] in 1983, reductions in trade [[tariff]]s, [[Tax reform|taxation reforms]], changing from centralised [[Price controls|wage-fixing]] to [[Enterprise Bargaining Agreement|enterprise bargaining]], restrictions on [[trade union]] activities including on [[strike action]] and [[pattern bargaining]], the [[privatisation]] of government-run services and enterprises such as [[Qantas]] and the [[Commonwealth Bank]] and wholesale [[deregulation]] of the [[banking system]]. Keating also proposed a [[Goods and Services Tax (Australia)|Goods and Services Tax]] (GST) in 1985, but this was scrapped due to its unpopularity amongst both ALP and electorate. The party also desisted from other reforms such as wholesale [[labour market]] deregulation, the eventual GST, the privatisation of [[Telstra]] and [[welfare reform]]. The Hawke-Keating governments have been considered by some as laying the groundwork for the later development of both the [[New Democrats (United States)|New Democrats]] in the United States and [[New Labour]] in the United Kingdom.<ref name="Lavelle 2005">{{cite journal |title=Social Democrats and Neo-Liberalism: A Case Study of the Australian Labor Party |last=Lavelle |first=Ashley |journal=Political Studies |date=1 December 2005 |volume=53 |issue=4 |pages=753–771 |doi=10.1111/j.1467-9248.2005.00555.x |s2cid=144842245}}</ref><ref name="Humphrys 2018">{{cite book |last=Humphrys |first=Elizabeth |title=How Labour Built Neoliberalism: Australia's Accord, the Labour Movement and the Neoliberal Project |date=8 October 2018 |publisher=Brill Academic Publishers |isbn=978-90-04-38346-3 |author-link=Elizabeth Humphrys}}</ref> One political commentator agreed that it led [[centre-left]] parties towards the path to [[neoliberalism]].<ref>{{cite news |last=Badham |first=Van |date=6 April 2017 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/apr/06/australian-labor-led-centre-left-parties-into-neoliberalism-can-they-lead-it-out |title=Australian Labor led centre-left parties into neoliberalism. Can they lead it out? |work=[[The Guardian]] |access-date=15 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170508012515/https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/apr/06/australian-labor-led-centre-left-parties-into-neoliberalism-can-they-lead-it-out |archive-date=8 May 2017}}</ref> Meanwhile, others, particularly former Labor MP and current National President [[Wayne Swan]], acknowledge several [[Economic Conservatism|economically conservative]] reforms, but at the same time disagreed and focused on the prosperity and social equality that they provided in the "26 years of uninterrupted economic growth since 1991", seeing it as fitting well within "Australian Laborism".<ref name="Swan">{{cite news |last=Swan |first=Wayne |author-link=Wayne Swan |date=13 May 2017 |url=http://theconversation.com/was-embracing-the-market-a-necessary-evil-for-labour-and-labor-81612 |title=Was embracing the market a necessary evil for Labour and Labor? |work=[[The Conversation (website)|The Conversation]] |access-date=15 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181117021222/http://theconversation.com/was-embracing-the-market-a-necessary-evil-for-labour-and-labor-81612 |archive-date=17 November 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Jacotine |first=Keshia |date=25 August 2017 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/may/14/the-hawke-keating-agenda-was-laborism-not-neoliberalism-and-is-still-a-guiding-light |title=The Hawke-Keating agenda was Laborism, not neoliberalism, and is still a guiding light |work=[[The Guardian]] |access-date=15 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170604190440/https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/may/14/the-hawke-keating-agenda-was-laborism-not-neoliberalism-and-is-still-a-guiding-light |archive-date=4 June 2017}}</ref> Swan also mentioned the fact that the policies and reforms of the Hawke–Keating governments, described as Third Way, predated the idea by a decade or more.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.alp.org.au/national-president-media/australian-laborism-the-way-ahead/ |title=Australian Laborism: The Way Ahead |last=Swan |first=Wayne |author-link=Wayne Swan |date= |website=alp.org.au |publisher=[[Australian Labor Party]] (ALP) |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210311161006/https://www.alp.org.au/national-president-media/australian-laborism-the-way-ahead/ |archive-date=11 March 2021 |quote=The Hawke-Keating economic reforms should be more appropriately described as Australian Laborism, and nothing like the Third Way ideology embraced by some US Democrats and some in British Labour. We were first. And we did it our way, the Australian Labor way. We led the way, forcing the conservatives into policy retreat and to fight the battles on our turf.}}</ref>


Both Hawke and Keating made some criticism too.<ref>{{cite news |last=Snow |first=Deborah |date=30 March 2017 |url=https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/paul-keating-says-neoliberalism-is-at-a-dead-end-after-sally-mcmanus-speech-20170329-gv9cto.html |title=Paul Keating says neo-liberalism is at 'a dead end' after Sally McManus speech |work=[[The Sydney Morning Herald]] |access-date=15 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180409073505/https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/paul-keating-says-neoliberalism-is-at-a-dead-end-after-sally-mcmanus-speech-20170329-gv9cto.html |archive-date=9 April 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Robertson |first=Tim |date=20 April 2017 |url=https://www.eurekastreet.com.au/article/we-are-all-neoliberals-now |title=We are all neoliberals now |work=Eureka Street |access-date=15 February 2020 |quote=The Left's failure is, therefore, not so much that neoliberalism has failed, but that when it did there existed no alternative that could challenge its dominance. Keating, even now, proposes no solutions; he offers, simply, a critique. |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190509222415/https://www.eurekastreet.com.au/article/we-are-all-neoliberals-now |archive-date=9 May 2019}}</ref> In the lead-up to the [[2019 Australian federal election|2019 federal election]], Hawke made a joint statement with Keating endorsing Labor's economic plan and condemned the [[Liberal Party (Australia)|Liberal Party]] for "completely [giving] up the economic reform agenda". They stated that "[[Bill Shorten|[Bill] Shorten]]'s Labor is the only party of government focused on the need to modernise the economy to deal with the major challenge of our time: human induced climate change".<ref>{{cite news |last=Hartcher |first=Peter |date=8 May 2019 |url=https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/6111996/old-foes-bury-the-hatchet-to-endorse-shorten/ |title=Bob Hawke and Paul Keating reunite for the first time in 28 years to endorse Labor's economic plan |work=[[The Canberra Times]] |access-date=15 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190529152140/https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/6111996/old-foes-bury-the-hatchet-to-endorse-shorten/ |archive-date=29 May 2019}}</ref>
Both Hawke and Keating made some criticism too.<ref>{{cite news |last=Snow |first=Deborah |date=30 March 2017 |url=https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/paul-keating-says-neoliberalism-is-at-a-dead-end-after-sally-mcmanus-speech-20170329-gv9cto.html |title=Paul Keating says neo-liberalism is at 'a dead end' after Sally McManus speech |work=[[The Sydney Morning Herald]] |access-date=15 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180409073505/https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/paul-keating-says-neoliberalism-is-at-a-dead-end-after-sally-mcmanus-speech-20170329-gv9cto.html |archive-date=9 April 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Robertson |first=Tim |date=20 April 2017 |url=https://www.eurekastreet.com.au/article/we-are-all-neoliberals-now |title=We are all neoliberals now |work=Eureka Street |access-date=15 February 2020 |quote=The Left's failure is, therefore, not so much that neoliberalism has failed, but that when it did there existed no alternative that could challenge its dominance. Keating, even now, proposes no solutions; he offers, simply, a critique. |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190509222415/https://www.eurekastreet.com.au/article/we-are-all-neoliberals-now |archive-date=9 May 2019}}</ref> In the lead-up to the [[2019 Australian federal election|2019 federal election]], Hawke made a joint statement with Keating endorsing Labor's economic plan and condemned the [[Liberal Party (Australia)|Liberal Party]] for "completely [giving] up the economic reform agenda". They stated that "[[Bill Shorten|[Bill] Shorten]]'s Labor is the only party of government focused on the need to modernise the economy to deal with the major challenge of our time: human induced climate change".<ref>{{cite news |last=Hartcher |first=Peter |date=8 May 2019 |url=https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/6111996/old-foes-bury-the-hatchet-to-endorse-shorten/ |title=Bob Hawke and Paul Keating reunite for the first time in 28 years to endorse Labor's economic plan |work=[[The Canberra Times]] |access-date=15 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190529152140/https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/6111996/old-foes-bury-the-hatchet-to-endorse-shorten/ |archive-date=29 May 2019}}</ref>


Various ideological beliefs were factionalised under reforms to the ALP under [[Gough Whitlam]], resulting in what is now known as the [[Labor Left]], who tend to favour a more [[Economic interventionism|interventionist]] economic policy, more authoritative top-down controls and some [[Social progress|socially progressive]] ideals; and [[Labor Right]], the now dominant faction that is [[pro-business]], more [[economically liberal]] and focuses to a lesser extent on [[social issues]]. The [[Whitlam government]] was first to use the term [[economic rationalism]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.uq.edu.au/economics/johnquiggin/JournalArticles97/Econrat97.html |title=John Quiggin&nbsp;— Journal Articles 1997 - Economic rationalism |website=[[University of Queensland]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180519064445/http://www.uq.edu.au/economics/johnquiggin/JournalArticles97/Econrat97.html |archive-date=19 May 2018}}</ref> The Whitlam 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% after twenty-three years of Labor being in opposition.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.whitlam.org/collection/1973/19730718_Tariff_Reduction/ |website=The Whitlam Institute: The Whitlam Collection |title=Tariff Reduction |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050720062736/http://www.whitlam.org/collection/1973/19730718_Tariff_Reduction/ |archive-date=20 July 2005}}</ref>
Various ideological beliefs were factionalised under reforms to the ALP under Gough Whitlam, resulting in what is now known as [[Labor Left]] which broadly advocates for democratic socialism, economic interventionism, and progressive social policies; and [[Labor Right]], which tends to align more closely with social democracy and has been the main proponent of Third Way style economic policy within the party.


Former Labor Prime Minister [[Kevin Rudd]]'s first speech to parliament in 1998 stated: <blockquote>Competitive markets are massive and generally efficient generators of economic wealth. They must therefore have a central place in the management of the economy. But markets sometimes fail, requiring direct government intervention through instruments such as industry policy. There are also areas where the public good dictates that there should be no market at all. We are not afraid of a vision in the Labor Party, but nor are we afraid of doing the hard policy yards necessary to turn that vision into reality. Parties of the Centre Left around the world are wrestling with a similar challenge—the creation of a competitive economy while advancing the overriding imperative of a just society. Some call this the "third way". The nomenclature is unimportant. What is important is that it is a repudiation of [[Thatcherism]] and its Australian derivatives represented opposite. It is in fact a new formulation of the nation's economic and social imperatives.<ref>{{cite web |first=Kevin |last=Rudd |author-link=Kevin Rudd |title=First Speech to Parliament |publisher=[[Parliament of Australia]] |date=11 November 1998 |url=http://www.aph.gov.au/house/members/firstspeech.asp?id=83T |access-date=9 December 2006 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071223222531/http://www.aph.gov.au/house/members/firstspeech.asp?id=83T |archive-date=23 December 2007}}</ref></blockquote>
Former Labor Prime Minister [[Kevin Rudd]]'s first speech to parliament in 1998 stated: <blockquote>Competitive markets are massive and generally efficient generators of economic wealth. They must therefore have a central place in the management of the economy. But markets sometimes fail, requiring direct government intervention through instruments such as industry policy. There are also areas where the public good dictates that there should be no market at all. We are not afraid of a vision in the Labor Party, but nor are we afraid of doing the hard policy yards necessary to turn that vision into reality. Parties of the Centre Left around the world are wrestling with a similar challenge – the creation of a competitive economy while advancing the overriding imperative of a just society. Some call this the "third way". The nomenclature is unimportant. What is important is that it is a repudiation of [[Thatcherism]] and its Australian derivatives represented opposite. It is in fact a new formulation of the nation's economic and social imperatives.<ref>{{cite web |first=Kevin |last=Rudd |author-link=Kevin Rudd |title=First Speech to Parliament |publisher=[[Parliament of Australia]] |date=11 November 1998 |url=http://www.aph.gov.au/house/members/firstspeech.asp?id=83T |access-date=9 December 2006 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071223222531/http://www.aph.gov.au/house/members/firstspeech.asp?id=83T |archive-date=23 December 2007}}</ref></blockquote>


While critical of economists such as [[Friedrich Hayek]],<ref name="Rudd 2006">{{cite web |last1=Rudd |first1=Kevin |author-link=Kevin Rudd |title=What's Wrong with the Right: A Social Democratic Response to the Neo-Liberals at Home and the Neo-Conservatives Abroad |url=http://www.kevinrudd.com/_dbase_upl/061116_CIS.pdf |access-date=15 May 2019 |archive-url=https://webarchive.nla.gov.au/awa/20061130130000/http://pandora.nla.gov.au/pan/38035/20061201-0000/www.kevinrudd.com/_dbase_upl/061116+cis.pdf |archive-date=30 November 2006 |date=16 November 2006 |url-status=dead}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |first=Peter |last=Hartcher |title=Howard's warriors sweep all before them |work=[[Sydney Morning Herald]] |date=14 October 2006 |url=http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/howards-warriors-sweep-all-before-them/2006/10/13/1160246325222.html |access-date=4 December 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200522101233/https://www.smh.com.au/national/howards-warriors-sweep-all-before-them-20061014-gdolg9.html |archive-date=22 May 2020}}</ref> Rudd described himself as "basically a [[Fiscal conservatism|conservative]] when it comes to questions of public financial management", pointing to his slashing of public service jobs as a Queensland governmental advisor.<ref>{{cite web |title=New Labor Leader Outlines Plan |work=The 7.30 Report |publisher=[[Australian Broadcasting Corporation]] |date=4 December 2006 |url=http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2006/s1804034.htm |access-date=5 December 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101005004509/http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2006/s1804034.htm |archive-date=5 October 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Labor elects new leader |work=The 7.30 Report |publisher=[[Australian Broadcasting Corporation]] |date=4 December 2006 |url=http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2006/s1804032.htm |access-date=5 December 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061205211458/http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2006/s1804032.htm |archive-date=5 December 2006}}</ref> Rudd's government has been praised and credited "by most economists, both local and international, for helping Australia avoiding a post-global-financial-crisis recession" during the [[Global Recession]].<ref name="Swan" />
=== Brazil ===
{{Main|Third Way (Brazil)}}
{{See also|Fernando Henrique Cardoso|Brazilian Social Democracy Party}}
Examples of Brazilian Third Way politicians include current Vice President [[Geraldo Alckmin]] and former president [[Fernando Henrique Cardoso]]. Other politicians include [[Simone Tebet]], [[José Serra]] and [[Ciro Gomes]], and to a lesser extent [[Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva]].<ref>{{Cite news |date=2022-09-28 |title=Brazil election: 'Third way' candidates gain little ground against Lula and Bolsonaro |url=https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2022/09/28/brazil-election-third-way-candidates-gain-little-ground-against-lula-and-bolsonaro_5998463_4.html |access-date=2024-07-17 |work=Le Monde.fr |language=en}}</ref>


=== France ===
=== France ===
{{see also|Emmanuel Macron|La République En Marche!|MoDem}}
{{see also|Emmanuel Macron|La République En Marche!|MoDem}}
Examples of French Third Way politicians include current President [[Emmanuel Macron]], and to a lesser extent [[François Hollande]], [[Dominique Strauss-Kahn]] and [[Manuel Valls]].<ref>{{harvnb|Yuk|2007}}; {{harvnb|Lohrenz|2014}}; {{harvnb|Alcaro|Le Corre|2014}}; {{harvnb|Milner|2017}}</ref>
Examples of French Third Way politicians include current President [[Emmanuel Macron]], and to a lesser extent [[François Hollande]], [[Dominique Strauss-Kahn]] and [[Manuel Valls]].<ref>{{harvnb|Yuk|2007}}; {{harvnb|Lohrenz|2014}}; {{harvnb|Alcaro|Le Corre|2014}}; {{harvnb|Milner|2017}}</ref>
=== Germany ===
[[File:Olaf Scholz 2024.jpg|thumb|150px|[[Chancellor of Germany|German chancellor]] [[Olaf Scholz]] (2021–2025)]]
Former German chancellor [[Gerhard Schröder]] (1998–2005) was a proponent of Third Way policies. Throughout his campaign for chancellor, he portrayed himself as a pragmatic ''new'' [[Social Democratic Party of Germany|Social Democrat]] who would promote economic growth while strengthening Germany's generous social welfare system.<ref>[[Edmund L. Andrews]] (20 October 1998), [https://www.nytimes.com/1998/10/20/world/choice-for-economics-post-spurns-offer-by-schroder.html Choice for Economics Post Spurns Offer by Schroder] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171005152448/http://www.nytimes.com/1998/10/20/world/choice-for-economics-post-spurns-offer-by-schroder.html |date=5 October 2017 }} ''[[The New York Times]]''.</ref> During Schröder's time in office, economic growth slowed to only 0.2% in 2002 and Gross Domestic Product shrank in 2003, while German unemployment was over the 10% mark.<ref>[http://www.dw.com/en/schr%C3%B6der-urges-reform-as-spd-celebrates-140th-anniversary/a-876290-1 Schröder Urges Reform as SPD Celebrates 140th Anniversary] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171005101830/http://www.dw.com/en/schr%C3%B6der-urges-reform-as-spd-celebrates-140th-anniversary/a-876290-1 |date=5 October 2017 }} ''[[Deutsche Welle]]'', 23 May 2002.</ref> Most voters soon associated Schröder with the [[Agenda 2010]] reform program, which included cuts in the [[social welfare]] system ([[national health insurance]], [[unemployment insurance|unemployment payments]], pensions), lower taxes, and reformed regulations on employment and payment. He also eliminated capital gains tax on the sale of corporate stocks and thereby made the country more attractive to foreign investors.<ref>Claus Christian Malzahn (14 October 2005), [http://www.spiegel.de/international/the-modern-chancellor-taking-stock-of-gerhard-schroeder-a-379600.html The Modern Chancellor: Taking Stock of Gerhard Schröder] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121023033112/http://www.spiegel.de/international/the-modern-chancellor-taking-stock-of-gerhard-schroeder-a-379600.html|date=23 October 2012}} ''[[Spiegel Online]]''.</ref>
Chancellor Olaf Scholz (2021–2025) has not explicitly stated support for Third way policies, but is widely seen as part of the moderate wing of within the SPD.<ref name="Nienaber-2018">{{cite web|first=Michael|last=Nienaber|date=29 May 2018|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-germany-scholz-analysis/germanys-miserly-scholz-irks-comrades-at-home-and-abroad-idUSKCN1IU0EX|title=Germany's 'miserly' Scholz irks comrades at home and abroad|work=[[Reuters]]|access-date=2 June 2018|archive-date=29 May 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180529084013/https://www.reuters.com/article/us-germany-scholz-analysis/germanys-miserly-scholz-irks-comrades-at-home-and-abroad-idUSKCN1IU0EX|url-status=dead}}</ref> During his tenure as minister of finance in the [[Fourth Merkel cabinet]] (2018–2021), Scholz prioritised not taking on new government debt and limiting public spending.<ref name="Chazan-2018">{{cite news |last1=Chazan |first1=Guy |title=Olaf Scholz, a sound guardian for Germany's finances |url=https://www.ft.com/content/170b9d0a-0cc2-11e8-8eb7-42f857ea9f09 |website=Financial Times |access-date=7 September 2021 |date=9 February 2018 |archive-date=26 August 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210826204338/https://www.ft.com/content/170b9d0a-0cc2-11e8-8eb7-42f857ea9f09 |url-status=live}}</ref>
=== Hungary ===
In Hungary, this concept emerged in the 1930s through the writings of Hungarian authors who focused on rural life and national character, seeking an alternative to the prevailing political orthodoxies of their time.
Looking beyond Hungary's domestic political landscape, the third way embodied a comprehensive rejection of both liberal capitalism, which had proven hostile to social justice rooted in Christian principles, and the despotic socialist systems that brutally trampled individual freedoms.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Kortárs Online {{!}} Népi mozgalom – harmadik út |url=http://www.kortarsonline.hu/2011/12/nepi-mozgalom-%e2%80%93-harmadik-ut/2496 |access-date=2025-09-25 |website=Kortárs Online |language=hu-HU}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Jancsó |first=Ádám Darabos{{!}}András |date=2021-11-06 |title=Forgotten Origins of Christian Democracy |url=https://www.hungarianconservative.com/articles/culture_society/forgotten-origins-of-christian-democracy/ |access-date=2025-09-25 |website=Hungarian Conservative |language=en-US}}</ref>
The movement of Hungarian writers and intellectuals who focused on rural life and national character began in the 1930s. Its leading figures reached a fundamental understanding that the nation's problems could only be solved if politics became capable of simultaneously championing the causes of nationhood, democracy, and social justice rooted in Christian principles. The terrible tragedies of the 20th century demonstrate that when those in power neglect even one of these three core principles, the other two inevitably become corrupted.
It wasn't until much later that genuine third way political movements began to emerge. In the 2006 elections, [[Hungarian Justice and Life Party|MIÉP]] formed an alliance with [[Jobbik]] under the name "Third Way," creating an electoral party that proudly adopted third-way principles as reflected in its very name.<ref>https://magyarnemzet.hu/archivum-archivum/2006/03/miep-jobbik-a-harmadik-ut-orszagos-listaja</ref>
Since the establishment of the [[Our Homeland Movement]] in 2018, the party has identified itself with the "Our Homeland the Third Way" logo, displaying it prominently on its 2022 election posters and on the back cover of its 100-page "Dawn Program"<ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-03-16 |title=Dawn Program - English version |url=https://mihazank.hu/dawn-program/ |access-date=2025-09-25 |website=Mi Hazánk Mozgalom |language=hu}}</ref> The movement publishes a free monthly public affairs magazine titled "The Third Way."<ref>{{Cite web |last=Dániel |first=Dér |date=2022-03-30 |title=Íme a Fidesz által letiltani próbált A harmadik út című újság: négymillió példányt kézbesít a Mi Hazánk |url=https://mihazank.hu/ime-a-fidesz-altal-letiltani-probalt-a-harmadik-ut-nevu-ujsag-negymillio-peldanyt-kezbesitenek-a-mi-hazank-aktivistai/ |access-date=2025-09-25 |website=Mi Hazánk Mozgalom |language=hu}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Miért aggasztó, hogy |url=https://www.hetek.hu//cikkek/belfold/2022aprilis/dobbenetes-veszely-a-demokraciara-nezve |access-date=2025-09-25 |website=www.hetek.hu}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Álmos |first=Avar |date=2023-11-10 |title=Nyomtass magad! Itt a Mi Hazánk nyomtatható havilapja |url=https://mihazank.hu/harmadikut/ |access-date=2025-09-25 |website=Mi Hazánk Mozgalom |language=hu}}</ref> In their public statements, they explicitly distance themselves from both liberal right-wing and left-wing political blocs.<ref>{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6K273x9btI |title=Mi Hazánk: a harmadik út |date=2022-03-03 |last=Mi Hazánk Mozgalom |access-date=2025-09-25 |via=YouTube}}</ref>


=== Italy ===
=== Italy ===
[[File:Matteo Renzi 2015.jpeg|thumb|upright|[[Matteo Renzi]], the former [[Italian Prime Minister]], a Third Way politician]]
{{see also|Craxism}}
{{see also|Craxism}}
{{Expand section|with=information about late PSI and Craxi|date=January 2023}}
{{Expand section|with=information about late PSI and Craxi|date=January 2023}}
[[File:Matteo Renzi 2015.jpeg|thumb|upright|[[Matteo Renzi]], the former [[Italian Prime Minister]], a Third Way politician]]
The Italian [[Democratic Party (Italy)|Democratic Party]] is a plural [[social democratic]] party including several distinct ideological trends. Politicians such as former Prime Ministers [[Romano Prodi]] and [[Matteo Renzi]] are proponents of the Third Way.<ref name="bbc07">{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/298465.stm |title=All aboard the Third Way |work=[[BBC News]] |date=19 March 1999 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030204120022/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/298465.stm |archive-date=4 February 2003}}</ref> Renzi has occasionally been compared to former [[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom|UK Prime Minister]] [[Tony Blair]] for his political views.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.repubblica.it/esteri/2014/04/03/news/tony_blair_renzi_mio_erede_con_la_sua_corsa_alle_riforme_cambier_l_italia-82630239/ |title=Tony Blair: "Renzi mio erede, con la sua corsa alle riforme cambierà l'Italia |language=it |trans-title=Tony Blair: "Renzi my heir, with his race for reforms will change Italy |first1=Enrico |last1=Franceschini |first2=John |last2=Lloyd |date=3 April 2014 |work=[[La Repubblica]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140529022908/https://www.repubblica.it/esteri/2014/04/03/news/tony_blair_renzi_mio_erede_con_la_sua_corsa_alle_riforme_cambier_l_italia-82630239/ |archive-date=29 May 2014}}</ref> Renzi himself has previously claimed to be a supporter of Blair's ideology of the Third Way, regarding an objective to synthesise liberal economics and left-wing social policies.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.unita.it/italia/speciale-primarie-del-centrosinistra/la-scelta-di-renzi-una-nuova-terza-via-1.467451 |title=Intervista a Matteo Renzi di Claudio Sardo |language=it |trans-title=Interview with Matteo Renzi by Claudio Sardo |work=[[L'Unità]] |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150701083012/http://www.unita.it/italia/speciale-primarie-del-centrosinistra/la-scelta-di-renzi-una-nuova-terza-via-1.467451 |archive-date=1 July 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.formiche.net/2013/06/09/irpef-imu-e-la-terza-via-di-gutgeld-guru-economico-di-renzi/ |title=Irpef, Imu e la terza via di Gutgeld, "guru" economico di Renzi |language=it |trans-title=Irpef, Imu and the third way of Gutgeld, Renzi's economic "guru". |publisher=Formiche Net |date=9 June 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180721103237/https://formiche.net/2013/06/irpef-imu-e-la-terza-via-di-gutgeld-guru-economico-di-renzi/ |archive-date=21 July 2018}}</ref>
The Italian [[Democratic Party (Italy)|Democratic Party]] is a plural [[social democratic]] party including several distinct ideological trends. Politicians such as former Prime Ministers [[Romano Prodi]] and [[Matteo Renzi]] are proponents of the Third Way.<ref name="bbc07">{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/298465.stm |title=All aboard the Third Way |work=[[BBC News]] |date=19 March 1999 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030204120022/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/298465.stm |archive-date=4 February 2003}}</ref> Renzi has occasionally been compared to former [[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom|UK Prime Minister]] [[Tony Blair]] for his political views.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.repubblica.it/esteri/2014/04/03/news/tony_blair_renzi_mio_erede_con_la_sua_corsa_alle_riforme_cambier_l_italia-82630239/ |title=Tony Blair: "Renzi mio erede, con la sua corsa alle riforme cambierà l'Italia |language=it |trans-title=Tony Blair: "Renzi my heir, with his race for reforms will change Italy |first1=Enrico |last1=Franceschini |first2=John |last2=Lloyd |date=3 April 2014 |work=[[La Repubblica]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140529022908/https://www.repubblica.it/esteri/2014/04/03/news/tony_blair_renzi_mio_erede_con_la_sua_corsa_alle_riforme_cambier_l_italia-82630239/ |archive-date=29 May 2014}}</ref> Renzi himself has previously claimed to be a supporter of Blair's ideology of the Third Way, regarding an objective to synthesise liberal economics and left-wing social policies.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.unita.it/italia/speciale-primarie-del-centrosinistra/la-scelta-di-renzi-una-nuova-terza-via-1.467451 |title=Intervista a Matteo Renzi di Claudio Sardo |language=it |trans-title=Interview with Matteo Renzi by Claudio Sardo |work=[[L'Unità]] |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150701083012/http://www.unita.it/italia/speciale-primarie-del-centrosinistra/la-scelta-di-renzi-una-nuova-terza-via-1.467451 |archive-date=1 July 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.formiche.net/2013/06/09/irpef-imu-e-la-terza-via-di-gutgeld-guru-economico-di-renzi/ |title=Irpef, Imu e la terza via di Gutgeld, "guru" economico di Renzi |language=it |trans-title=Irpef, Imu and the third way of Gutgeld, Renzi's economic "guru". |publisher=Formiche Net |date=9 June 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180721103237/https://formiche.net/2013/06/irpef-imu-e-la-terza-via-di-gutgeld-guru-economico-di-renzi/ |archive-date=21 July 2018}}</ref>


Under Renzi's secretariat, the Democratic Party took a strong stance in favour of [[2016 Italian constitutional referendum|constitutional reform]] and of a new [[electoral law]] on the road toward a [[two-party system]]. It is not an easy task to find the exact political trend represented by Renzi and his supporters, who have been known as ''[[Renziani]]''. The nature of Renzi's [[progressivism]] is a matter of debate and has been linked both to [[liberalism]] and [[populism]].<ref name="ricerca.repubblica.it">{{cite web |first=Concita |last=De Gregorio |url=http://ricerca.repubblica.it/repubblica/archivio/repubblica/2011/10/31/il-populista-di-centro.html |title=Il populista di centro |language=it |trans-title=The populist of the center |work=[[La Repubblica]] |date=31 October 2011 |access-date=17 May 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120111122026/http://ricerca.repubblica.it/repubblica/archivio/repubblica/2011/10/31/il-populista-di-centro.html |archive-date=11 January 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.europaquotidiano.it/2013/09/06/la-cura-omeopatica-renzi-per-battere-berlusconi/ |title=La cura omeopatica Renzi per battere Berlusconi |language=it |trans-title=The homeopathic cure Renzi to beat Berlusconi |work=Europa Quotidiano |date=6 September 2013 |access-date=17 May 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141006072326/http://www.europaquotidiano.it/2013/09/06/la-cura-omeopatica-renzi-per-battere-berlusconi/ |archive-date=6 October 2014 |url-status=dead}}</ref> According to Maria Teresa Meli of ''[[Corriere della Sera]]'', Renzi "pursues a precise model, borrowed from the [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]] and [[Bill Clinton]]'s [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic Party]]", comprising "a strange mix (for Italy) of liberal policy in the economic sphere and populism. This means that on one side he will attack the privileges of trade unions, especially of the [[Italian General Confederation of Labour|CGIL]], which defends only the already protected, while on the other he will sharply attack the vested powers, bankers, [[Confindustria]] and a certain type of capitalism".<ref>{{cite news |url=http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/2013/novembre/11/Renzi_pensa_che_premier_punti_co_0_20131111_3a9d8bc8-4a9a-11e3-af53-696773e76c0b.shtml |title=Ma Renzi pensa che il premier punti a un futuro in Europa |language=it |trans-title=But Renzi thinks the prime minister is aiming for a future in Europe |work=[[Corriere della Sera]] |access-date=17 May 2014}}</ref>
Under Renzi's secretariat, the Democratic Party took a strong stance in favour of [[2016 Italian constitutional referendum|constitutional reform]] and of a new [[electoral law]] on the road toward a [[two-party system]]. It is not an easy task to find the exact political trend represented by Renzi and his supporters, who have been known as ''[[Renziani]]''. The nature of Renzi's [[progressivism]] is a matter of debate and has been linked both to [[liberalism]] and [[populism]].<ref name="ricerca.repubblica.it">{{cite web |first=Concita |last=De Gregorio |url=http://ricerca.repubblica.it/repubblica/archivio/repubblica/2011/10/31/il-populista-di-centro.html |title=Il populista di centro |language=it |trans-title=The populist of the center |work=[[La Repubblica]] |date=31 October 2011 |access-date=17 May 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120111122026/http://ricerca.repubblica.it/repubblica/archivio/repubblica/2011/10/31/il-populista-di-centro.html |archive-date=11 January 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.europaquotidiano.it/2013/09/06/la-cura-omeopatica-renzi-per-battere-berlusconi/ |title=La cura omeopatica Renzi per battere Berlusconi |language=it |trans-title=The homeopathic cure Renzi to beat Berlusconi |work=Europa Quotidiano |date=6 September 2013 |access-date=17 May 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141006072326/http://www.europaquotidiano.it/2013/09/06/la-cura-omeopatica-renzi-per-battere-berlusconi/ |archive-date=6 October 2014 |url-status=dead}}</ref> According to Maria Teresa Meli of ''[[Corriere della Sera]]'', Renzi "pursues a precise model, borrowed from the [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]] and [[Bill Clinton]]'s [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic Party]]", comprising "a strange mix (for Italy) of liberal policy in the economic sphere and populism. This means that on one side he will attack the privileges of trade unions, especially of the [[Italian General Confederation of Labour|CGIL]], which defends only the already protected, while on the other he will sharply attack the vested powers, bankers, [[Confindustria]] and a certain type of capitalism".<ref>{{cite news |url=http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/2013/novembre/11/Renzi_pensa_che_premier_punti_co_0_20131111_3a9d8bc8-4a9a-11e3-af53-696773e76c0b.shtml |title=Ma Renzi pensa che il premier punti a un futuro in Europa |language=it |trans-title=But Renzi thinks the prime minister is aiming for a future in Europe |work=[[Corriere della Sera]] |access-date=17 May 2014}}</ref>


After the Democratic Party's defeat in the [[2018 Italian general election|2018 general election]]<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.corriere.it/elezioni-2018/notizie/elezioni-2018-exit-poll-risultati-proiezioni-spoglio-eb21387e-1ff1-11e8-a09a-92b478235f6f.shtml |title=Elezioni 2018: M5S primo partito, nel centrodestra la Lega supera FI |language=it |trans-title=Elections 2018: M5S first party, in the centre-right the League surpasses FI |first=Alessandro |last=Sala |newspaper=[[Corriere della Sera]] |date=3 April 2018 |access-date=18 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220128172222/https://www.corriere.it/elezioni-2018/notizie/elezioni-2018-exit-poll-risultati-proiezioni-spoglio-eb21387e-1ff1-11e8-a09a-92b478235f6f.shtml |archive-date=28 January 2022}}</ref> in which the party gained 18.8% and 19.1% of the vote (down from 25.5% and 27.4% in 2013) and lost 185 deputies and 58 senators, respectively, Renzi resigned as the party's secretary.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.repubblica.it/speciali/politica/elezioni2018/2018/03/04/news/risultati_elezioni_politiche_pd_centrodestra_m5s_fi_lega-190424815/ |title=Elezioni politiche: vincono M5s e Lega. Crollo del Partito democratico. Centrodestra prima coalizione. Il Carroccio sorpassa Forza Italia |trans-title=Political elections: M5s and Lega win. Collapse of the Democratic Party. Centre-right first coalition. The Carroccio overtakes Forza Italia |last=Matteucci |first=Piera |newspaper=[[La Repubblica]] |language=it |date=4 March 2018 |access-date=18 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180505040727/https://www.repubblica.it/speciali/politica/elezioni2018/2018/03/04/news/risultati_elezioni_politiche_pd_centrodestra_m5s_fi_lega-190424815/ |archive-date=5 May 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.repubblica.it/speciali/politica/elezioni2018/2018/03/05/news/elezioni_2018_renzi_si_dimette-190497785/ |title=Renzi: "Lascerò dopo nuovo governo. Pd all'opposizione". Ma è scontro nel partito: "Via subito". Orfini: "Percorso previsto dallo statuto |trans-title=Renzi: "I will leave the new government after. Pd in opposition". But it is a clash in the party: "Get out now". Orfini: "Path envisaged by the statute |newspaper=[[La Repubblica]] |language=it |date=5 March 2018 |access-date=18 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181109150706/https://www.repubblica.it/speciali/politica/elezioni2018/2018/03/05/news/elezioni_2018_renzi_si_dimette-190497785/ |archive-date=9 November 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.repubblica.it/politica/2018/03/12/news/direzione_pd_governo_elezioni_politiche_2018_matteo_renzi_mi_dimetto_ma_non_mollo_-191080532/ |title=Direzione Pd, Martina: "Governino Lega e M5s". Renzi assente: "Mi dimetto ma non mollo |trans-title=Pd direction, Martina: "Governino Lega and M5s". Renzi absent: "I resign but I won't give up |last1=Casadio |first1=Giovanna |last2=Custodero |first2=Alberto |newspaper=[[La Repubblica]] |language=it |date=12 March 2018 |access-date=18 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180522074928/https://www.repubblica.it/politica/2018/03/12/news/direzione_pd_governo_elezioni_politiche_2018_matteo_renzi_mi_dimetto_ma_non_mollo_-191080532/ |archive-date=22 May 2018}}</ref> In March 2019, [[Nicola Zingaretti]], a social democrat and prominent member of the party's left-wing with solid roots in the [[Italian Communist Party]], won the [[2019 Democratic Party (Italy) leadership election|leadership election]] by a landslide, defeating [[Maurizio Martina]] (Renzi's former deputy secretary) and [[Roberto Giachetti]] (supported by most ''Renziani'').<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/mar/03/italy-heads-to-the-polls-to-elect-new-leader-for-democratic-party |title=Nicola Zingaretti elected as leader of Italy's Democratic party |last=Giuffrida |first=Angela |newspaper=[[The Guardian]] |date=3 March 2019 |access-date=18 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190304040625/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/mar/03/italy-heads-to-the-polls-to-elect-new-leader-for-democratic-party |archive-date=4 March 2019}}</ref> Zingaretti focused his campaign on a clear contrast with Renzi's policies and his victory opened the way for a new party.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.ilfattoquotidiano.it/in-edicola/articoli/2019/03/04/zingaretti-segretario-il-renzismo-archiviato-voltiamo-pagina/5011447/ |title=Zingaretti segretario. Il renzismo archiviato: "Voltiamo pagina |trans-title=Zingaretti secretary. Renzism archived: "Let's turn the page |last=Marra |first=Wanda |newspaper=[[Il Fatto Quotidiano]] |language=it |date=4 March 2019 |access-date=18 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200809072148/https://www.ilfattoquotidiano.it/in-edicola/articoli/2019/03/04/zingaretti-segretario-il-renzismo-archiviato-voltiamo-pagina/5011447/ |archive-date=9 August 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.tg24.info/primarie-pd-zingaretti-ora-voltiamo-pagina-pronti-al-riscatto-di-chi-soffre-per-ingiustizie-video/ |title=Primarie PD – Zingaretti: "Ora voltiamo pagina, pronti al riscatto di chi soffre per ingiustizie" (video) |trans-title=Primaries PD - Zingaretti: "Now let's move on, ready to redeem those who suffer from injustice" (video) |publisher=[[Sky TG24]] |language=it |date=4 March 2019 |access-date=18 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190304202538/https://www.tg24.info/primarie-pd-zingaretti-ora-voltiamo-pagina-pronti-al-riscatto-di-chi-soffre-per-ingiustizie-video/ |archive-date=4 March 2019}}</ref>
After the Democratic Party's defeat in the [[2018 Italian general election|2018 general election]]<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.corriere.it/elezioni-2018/notizie/elezioni-2018-exit-poll-risultati-proiezioni-spoglio-eb21387e-1ff1-11e8-a09a-92b478235f6f.shtml |title=Elezioni 2018: M5S primo partito, nel centrodestra la Lega supera FI |language=it |trans-title=Elections 2018: M5S first party, in the centre-right the League surpasses FI |first=Alessandro |last=Sala |newspaper=[[Corriere della Sera]] |date=3 April 2018 |access-date=18 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220128172222/https://www.corriere.it/elezioni-2018/notizie/elezioni-2018-exit-poll-risultati-proiezioni-spoglio-eb21387e-1ff1-11e8-a09a-92b478235f6f.shtml |archive-date=28 January 2022}}</ref> in which the party gained 18.8% and 19.1% of the vote (down from 25.5% and 27.4% in 2013) and lost 185 deputies and 58 senators, respectively, Renzi resigned as the party's secretary.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.repubblica.it/speciali/politica/elezioni2018/2018/03/04/news/risultati_elezioni_politiche_pd_centrodestra_m5s_fi_lega-190424815/ |title=Elezioni politiche: vincono M5s e Lega. Crollo del Partito democratico. Centrodestra prima coalizione. Il Carroccio sorpassa Forza Italia |trans-title=Political elections: M5s and Lega win. Collapse of the Democratic Party. Centre-right first coalition. The Carroccio overtakes Forza Italia |last=Matteucci |first=Piera |newspaper=[[La Repubblica]] |language=it |date=4 March 2018 |access-date=18 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180505040727/https://www.repubblica.it/speciali/politica/elezioni2018/2018/03/04/news/risultati_elezioni_politiche_pd_centrodestra_m5s_fi_lega-190424815/ |archive-date=5 May 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.repubblica.it/speciali/politica/elezioni2018/2018/03/05/news/elezioni_2018_renzi_si_dimette-190497785/ |title=Renzi: "Lascerò dopo nuovo governo. Pd all'opposizione". Ma è scontro nel partito: "Via subito". Orfini: "Percorso previsto dallo statuto |trans-title=Renzi: "I will leave the new government after. Pd in opposition". But it is a clash in the party: "Get out now". Orfini: "Path envisaged by the statute |newspaper=[[La Repubblica]] |language=it |date=5 March 2018 |access-date=18 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181109150706/https://www.repubblica.it/speciali/politica/elezioni2018/2018/03/05/news/elezioni_2018_renzi_si_dimette-190497785/ |archive-date=9 November 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.repubblica.it/politica/2018/03/12/news/direzione_pd_governo_elezioni_politiche_2018_matteo_renzi_mi_dimetto_ma_non_mollo_-191080532/ |title=Direzione Pd, Martina: "Governino Lega e M5s". Renzi assente: "Mi dimetto ma non mollo |trans-title=Pd direction, Martina: "Governino Lega and M5s". Renzi absent: "I resign but I won't give up |last1=Casadio |first1=Giovanna |last2=Custodero |first2=Alberto |newspaper=[[La Repubblica]] |language=it |date=12 March 2018 |access-date=18 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180522074928/https://www.repubblica.it/politica/2018/03/12/news/direzione_pd_governo_elezioni_politiche_2018_matteo_renzi_mi_dimetto_ma_non_mollo_-191080532/ |archive-date=22 May 2018}}</ref> In March 2019, [[Nicola Zingaretti]], a social democrat and prominent member of the party's left-wing with solid roots in the [[Italian Communist Party]], won the [[2019 Democratic Party (Italy) leadership election|leadership election]] by a landslide, defeating [[Maurizio Martina]] (Renzi's former deputy secretary) and [[Roberto Giachetti]] (supported by most ''Renziani'').<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/mar/03/italy-heads-to-the-polls-to-elect-new-leader-for-democratic-party |title=Nicola Zingaretti elected as leader of Italy's Democratic party |last=Giuffrida |first=Angela |newspaper=[[The Guardian]] |date=3 March 2019 |access-date=18 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190304040625/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/mar/03/italy-heads-to-the-polls-to-elect-new-leader-for-democratic-party |archive-date=4 March 2019}}</ref> Zingaretti focused his campaign on a clear contrast with Renzi's policies and his victory opened the way for a new party.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.ilfattoquotidiano.it/in-edicola/articoli/2019/03/04/zingaretti-segretario-il-renzismo-archiviato-voltiamo-pagina/5011447/ |title=Zingaretti segretario. Il renzismo archiviato: "Voltiamo pagina |trans-title=Zingaretti secretary. Renzism archived: "Let's turn the page |last=Marra |first=Wanda |newspaper=[[Il Fatto Quotidiano]] |language=it |date=4 March 2019 |access-date=18 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200809072148/https://www.ilfattoquotidiano.it/in-edicola/articoli/2019/03/04/zingaretti-segretario-il-renzismo-archiviato-voltiamo-pagina/5011447/ |archive-date=9 August 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.tg24.info/primarie-pd-zingaretti-ora-voltiamo-pagina-pronti-al-riscatto-di-chi-soffre-per-ingiustizie-video/ |title=Primarie PD – Zingaretti: "Ora voltiamo pagina, pronti al riscatto di chi soffre per ingiustizie" (video) |trans-title=Primaries PD Zingaretti: "Now let's move on, ready to redeem those who suffer from injustice" (video) |publisher=[[Sky TG24]] |language=it |date=4 March 2019 |access-date=18 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190304202538/https://www.tg24.info/primarie-pd-zingaretti-ora-voltiamo-pagina-pronti-al-riscatto-di-chi-soffre-per-ingiustizie-video/ |archive-date=4 March 2019}}</ref>


In September 2019, Renzi announced his intention to leave the Democratic Party and create a new parliamentary group.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://rep.repubblica.it/pwa/intervista/2019/09/16/news/pd_renzi_scissione-236190189/ |title=Renzi lascia il Pd: "Uscire dal partito sarà un bene per tutti. Anche per Conte" |trans-title=Renzi leaves the Democratic Party: "Leaving the party will be good for everyone. Even for Conte" |last=Cuzzocrea |first=Annalisa |newspaper=[[La Repubblica]] |language=it |date=17 September 2019 |access-date=23 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190920140434/https://rep.repubblica.it/pwa/intervista/2019/09/16/news/pd_renzi_scissione-236190189/ |archive-date=20 September 2019}}</ref> He officially launched [[Italia Viva]]<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.corriere.it/politica/19_settembre_17/renzi-il-nome-nuova-sfida-che-stiamo-lanciare-sara-italia-viva-8dbc9da4-d963-11e9-8812-2a1c8aa813a3.shtml |title=Renzi: "Il nome della nuova sfida che stiamo per lanciare sarà Italia viva |language=it |trans-title=Renzi: "The name of the new challenge we are about to launch will be Italia viva |newspaper=[[Corriere della Sera]] |date=17 September 2019 |access-date=23 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190928110141/https://www.corriere.it/politica/19_settembre_17/renzi-il-nome-nuova-sfida-che-stiamo-lanciare-sara-italia-viva-8dbc9da4-d963-11e9-8812-2a1c8aa813a3_preview.shtml?reason=unauthenticated&cat=1&cid=ET7CgTWp&pids=FR&credits=1&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.corriere.it%2Fpolitica%2F19_settembre_17%2Frenzi-il-nome-nuova-sfida-che-stiamo-lanciare-sara-italia-viva-8dbc9da4-d963-11e9-8812-2a1c8aa813a3.shtml |archive-date=28 September 2019}}</ref> to continue the liberal and Third Way tradition<ref>{{cite news |last1=Sciorilli Borrelli |first1=Silvia |last2=Barigazzi |first2=Jacopo |date=5 September 2019 |url=https://www.politico.eu/article/matteo-renzi-italys-government-crisis-demolition-man-returns-to-the-fray/ |title=Matteo Renzi's triumphant return |work=[[Politico]] |access-date=23 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190910200536/https://www.politico.eu/article/matteo-renzi-italys-government-crisis-demolition-man-returns-to-the-fray/ |archive-date=10 September 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.newstatesman.com/world/europe/2019/09/matteo-renzi-s-new-centrist-party-italia-viva-faces-struggle-relevance |title=Matteo Renzi's new centrist party Italia Viva faces a struggle for relevance |last=Broder |first=David |newspaper=[[New Statesman]] |date=18 September 2019 |access-date=23 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211130234541/https://www.newstatesman.com/world/2019/09/matteo-renzi-s-new-centrist-party-italia-viva-faces-struggle-relevance |archive-date=30 November 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Segond |first=Valérie |date=17 September 2019 |url=https://www.lefigaro.fr/international/matteo-renzi-fausse-compagnie-au-parti-democrate-20190917 |title=Italie: Matteo Renzi fausse compagnie au Parti démocrate |language=fr |trans-title=Italy: Matteo Renzi gives way to the Democratic Party |work=[[Le Figaro]] |access-date=23 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191022105434/https://www.lefigaro.fr/international/matteo-renzi-fausse-compagnie-au-parti-democrate-20190917 |archive-date=22 October 2019}}</ref> within a [[pro-Europeanism]] framework,<ref>{{cite news |last=Meiler |first=Oliver |date=17 September 2019 |url=https://www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/matteo-renzi-partito-democratico-italien-1.4604700 |title=Der "Eindringling" geht |language=de |trans-title=The "Intruder" Leaves |work=[[Süddeutsche Zeitung]] |access-date=23 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190922155310/https://www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/matteo-renzi-partito-democratico-italien-1.4604700 |archive-date=22 September 2019}}</ref> especially as represented by the French President [[Emmanuel Macron]]'s [[La République En Marche!]].<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.ilfattoquotidiano.it/2019/10/20/leopolda-10-renzi-non-tartassare-partite-iva-noi-come-macron-vogliamo-i-voti-del-pd-centrodestra-e-finito-i-delusi-vengano-da-noi/5524296/ |title=Leopolda 10, Renzi: "Non tartassare partite Iva. Noi come Macron, vogliamo i voti del Pd. Centrodestra finito, delusi FI vengano da noi |trans-title=Leopolda 10, Renzi: "Don't harass VAT numbers. We, like Macron, want the votes of the Democratic Party. Center-right finished, disappointed FI come to us |newspaper=[[Il Fatto Quotidiano]] |language=it |date=20 October 2019 |access-date=23 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191020200035/https://www.ilfattoquotidiano.it/2019/10/20/leopolda-10-renzi-non-tartassare-partite-iva-noi-come-macron-vogliamo-i-voti-del-pd-centrodestra-e-finito-i-delusi-vengano-da-noi/5524296/ |archive-date=20 October 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.ilfoglio.it/l-italia-vista-dagli-altri/2019/10/21/news/renzi-vuole-essere-il-nuovo-macron-281922/ |title=Renzi vuole essere il nuovo Macron |trans-title=Renzi wants to be the new Macron |newspaper=[[Il Foglio]] |language=it |date=21 October 2019 |access-date=23 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191024070553/https://www.ilfoglio.it/l-italia-vista-dagli-altri/2019/10/21/news/renzi-vuole-essere-il-nuovo-macron-281922/ |archive-date=24 October 2019}}</ref>
In September 2019, Renzi announced his intention to leave the Democratic Party and create a new parliamentary group.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://rep.repubblica.it/pwa/intervista/2019/09/16/news/pd_renzi_scissione-236190189/ |title=Renzi lascia il Pd: "Uscire dal partito sarà un bene per tutti. Anche per Conte" |trans-title=Renzi leaves the Democratic Party: "Leaving the party will be good for everyone. Even for Conte" |last=Cuzzocrea |first=Annalisa |newspaper=[[La Repubblica]] |language=it |date=17 September 2019 |access-date=23 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190920140434/https://rep.repubblica.it/pwa/intervista/2019/09/16/news/pd_renzi_scissione-236190189/ |archive-date=20 September 2019}}</ref> He officially launched [[Italia Viva]]<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.corriere.it/politica/19_settembre_17/renzi-il-nome-nuova-sfida-che-stiamo-lanciare-sara-italia-viva-8dbc9da4-d963-11e9-8812-2a1c8aa813a3.shtml |title=Renzi: "Il nome della nuova sfida che stiamo per lanciare sarà Italia viva |language=it |trans-title=Renzi: "The name of the new challenge we are about to launch will be Italia viva |newspaper=[[Corriere della Sera]] |date=17 September 2019 |access-date=23 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190928110141/https://www.corriere.it/politica/19_settembre_17/renzi-il-nome-nuova-sfida-che-stiamo-lanciare-sara-italia-viva-8dbc9da4-d963-11e9-8812-2a1c8aa813a3_preview.shtml?reason=unauthenticated&cat=1&cid=ET7CgTWp&pids=FR&credits=1&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.corriere.it%2Fpolitica%2F19_settembre_17%2Frenzi-il-nome-nuova-sfida-che-stiamo-lanciare-sara-italia-viva-8dbc9da4-d963-11e9-8812-2a1c8aa813a3.shtml |archive-date=28 September 2019}}</ref> to continue the liberal and Third Way tradition<ref>{{cite news |last1=Sciorilli Borrelli |first1=Silvia |last2=Barigazzi |first2=Jacopo |date=5 September 2019 |url=https://www.politico.eu/article/matteo-renzi-italys-government-crisis-demolition-man-returns-to-the-fray/ |title=Matteo Renzi's triumphant return |work=[[Politico]] |access-date=23 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190910200536/https://www.politico.eu/article/matteo-renzi-italys-government-crisis-demolition-man-returns-to-the-fray/ |archive-date=10 September 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.newstatesman.com/world/europe/2019/09/matteo-renzi-s-new-centrist-party-italia-viva-faces-struggle-relevance |title=Matteo Renzi's new centrist party Italia Viva faces a struggle for relevance |last=Broder |first=David |newspaper=[[New Statesman]] |date=18 September 2019 |access-date=23 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211130234541/https://www.newstatesman.com/world/2019/09/matteo-renzi-s-new-centrist-party-italia-viva-faces-struggle-relevance |archive-date=30 November 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Segond |first=Valérie |date=17 September 2019 |url=https://www.lefigaro.fr/international/matteo-renzi-fausse-compagnie-au-parti-democrate-20190917 |title=Italie: Matteo Renzi fausse compagnie au Parti démocrate |language=fr |trans-title=Italy: Matteo Renzi gives way to the Democratic Party |work=[[Le Figaro]] |access-date=23 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191022105434/https://www.lefigaro.fr/international/matteo-renzi-fausse-compagnie-au-parti-democrate-20190917 |archive-date=22 October 2019}}</ref> within a [[pro-Europeanism]] framework,<ref>{{cite news |last=Meiler |first=Oliver |date=17 September 2019 |url=https://www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/matteo-renzi-partito-democratico-italien-1.4604700 |title=Der "Eindringling" geht |language=de |trans-title=The "Intruder" Leaves |work=[[Süddeutsche Zeitung]] |access-date=23 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190922155310/https://www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/matteo-renzi-partito-democratico-italien-1.4604700 |archive-date=22 September 2019}}</ref> especially as represented by the French President [[Emmanuel Macron]]'s [[La République En Marche!]].<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.ilfattoquotidiano.it/2019/10/20/leopolda-10-renzi-non-tartassare-partite-iva-noi-come-macron-vogliamo-i-voti-del-pd-centrodestra-e-finito-i-delusi-vengano-da-noi/5524296/ |title=Leopolda 10, Renzi: "Non tartassare partite Iva. Noi come Macron, vogliamo i voti del Pd. Centrodestra finito, delusi FI vengano da noi |trans-title=Leopolda 10, Renzi: "Don't harass VAT numbers. We, like Macron, want the votes of the Democratic Party. Center-right finished, disappointed FI come to us |newspaper=[[Il Fatto Quotidiano]] |language=it |date=20 October 2019 |access-date=23 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191020200035/https://www.ilfattoquotidiano.it/2019/10/20/leopolda-10-renzi-non-tartassare-partite-iva-noi-come-macron-vogliamo-i-voti-del-pd-centrodestra-e-finito-i-delusi-vengano-da-noi/5524296/ |archive-date=20 October 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.ilfoglio.it/l-italia-vista-dagli-altri/2019/10/21/news/renzi-vuole-essere-il-nuovo-macron-281922/ |title=Renzi vuole essere il nuovo Macron |trans-title=Renzi wants to be the new Macron |newspaper=[[Il Foglio]] |language=it |date=21 October 2019 |access-date=23 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191024070553/https://www.ilfoglio.it/l-italia-vista-dagli-altri/2019/10/21/news/renzi-vuole-essere-il-nuovo-macron-281922/ |archive-date=24 October 2019}}</ref>
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In 1939, [[Harold Macmillan]] wrote a book entitled ''The Middle Way'', advocating a compromise between [[capitalism]] and [[socialism]] which was a precursor to the contemporary notion of the Third Way.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.samuelbrittan.co.uk/spee3_p.html |title=Some reflections on the third way |last=Brittan |first=Samuel |date=20 November 1998 |access-date=10 March 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110719021726/http://www.samuelbrittan.co.uk/spee3_p.html |archive-date=19 July 2011}}</ref>
In 1939, [[Harold Macmillan]] wrote a book entitled ''The Middle Way'', advocating a compromise between [[capitalism]] and [[socialism]] which was a precursor to the contemporary notion of the Third Way.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.samuelbrittan.co.uk/spee3_p.html |title=Some reflections on the third way |last=Brittan |first=Samuel |date=20 November 1998 |access-date=10 March 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110719021726/http://www.samuelbrittan.co.uk/spee3_p.html |archive-date=19 July 2011}}</ref>


In 1979, the [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]] professed a complete adherence to [[social democratic]] ideals and rejected the choice between a "prosperous and efficient Britain" and a "caring and compassionate Britain".<ref name="1979Manifesto">{{cite web |url=http://www.labour-party.org.uk/manifestos/1979/1979-labour-manifesto.shtml |title=1979 Labour Party Manifesto |publisher=[[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110709085522/http://www.labour-party.org.uk/manifestos/1979/1979-labour-manifesto.shtml |archive-date=9 July 2011}}</ref> Coherent with this position, the main commitment of the party was the reduction of [[economic inequality]] via the introduction of a [[wealth tax]].<ref name="1979Manifesto" /> This was rejected in the 1997 manifesto,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.labour-party.org.uk/manifestos/1997/1997-labour-manifesto.shtml |title=1997 Labour Party Manifesto |publisher=[[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070216160938/http://www.labour-party.org.uk/manifestos/1997/1997-labour-manifesto.shtml |archive-date=16 February 2007}}</ref> along with many changes in the 1990s like the progressive dismissal of traditional social democratic ideology and the transformation into [[New Labour]], de-emphasising the need to tackle economic inequality and focusing instead on the expansion of opportunities for all whilst fostering [[social capital]].<ref name="psw.sagepub.com">{{cite journal |last1=Ferragina |first1=Emanuele |last2=Arrigoni |first2=Alessandro |date=2016 |url=http://psw.sagepub.com/content/early/2016/04/06/1478929915623968.abstract |title=The Rise and Fall of Social Capital: Requiem for a Theory? |journal=[[Political Studies Review]] |volume=15 |number=3 |pages=355–367 |doi=10.1177/1478929915623968 |s2cid=156138810 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161029131536/http://psw.sagepub.com/content/early/2016/04/06/1478929915623968.abstract |archive-date=29 October 2016}}</ref>
In 1979, the [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]] professed a complete adherence to [[social democratic]] ideals and rejected the choice between a "prosperous and efficient Britain" and a "caring and compassionate Britain".<ref name="1979Manifesto">{{cite web |url=http://www.labour-party.org.uk/manifestos/1979/1979-labour-manifesto.shtml |title=1979 Labour Party Manifesto |publisher=[[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110709085522/http://www.labour-party.org.uk/manifestos/1979/1979-labour-manifesto.shtml |archive-date=9 July 2011}}</ref> Coherent with this position, the main commitment of the party was the reduction of [[economic inequality]] via the introduction of a [[wealth tax]].<ref name="1979Manifesto" /> This was rejected in the 1997 manifesto,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.labour-party.org.uk/manifestos/1997/1997-labour-manifesto.shtml |title=1997 Labour Party Manifesto |publisher=[[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070216160938/http://www.labour-party.org.uk/manifestos/1997/1997-labour-manifesto.shtml |archive-date=16 February 2007}}</ref> along with many changes in the 1990s like the progressive dismissal of traditional social democratic ideology and the transformation into [[New Labour]], de-emphasising the need to tackle economic inequality and focusing instead on the expansion of opportunities for all whilst fostering [[social capital]].<ref name="psw.sagepub.com">{{cite journal |last1=Ferragina |first1=Emanuele |last2=Arrigoni |first2=Alessandro |date=2016 |url=http://psw.sagepub.com/content/early/2016/04/06/1478929915623968.abstract |title=The Rise and Fall of Social Capital: Requiem for a Theory? |journal=[[Political Studies Review]] |volume=15 |number=3 |pages=355–367 |doi=10.1177/1478929915623968 |s2cid=156138810 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161029131536/http://psw.sagepub.com/content/early/2016/04/06/1478929915623968.abstract |archive-date=29 October 2016|url-access=subscription }}</ref>


Former Prime Minister [[Tony Blair]] is cited as a Third Way politician.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://observer.guardian.co.uk/leaders/story/0,6903,1478980,00.html |title=Leader: Blair's new third way |newspaper=[[The Guardian]] |date=8 May 2005 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140716002943/https://www.theguardian.com/news/2005/may/08/leaders.labour |archive-date=16 July 2014}}</ref><ref name="bbc07"/> According to a former member of Blair's staff, Blair and the [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]] learnt from and owes a debt to [[Bob Hawke]]'s government in Australia in the 1980s on how to govern as a Third Way party.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/how-the-british-came-saw-and-helped-rudd/2007/12/16/1197740090746.html?page=2 |title=How the British came, saw and helped Rudd |work=[[The Age]] |date=17 December 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071218162635/http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/how-the-british-came-saw-and-helped-rudd/2007/12/16/1197740090746.html?page=2 |archive-date=18 December 2007}}</ref> Blair wrote in a [[Fabian Society|Fabian]] pamphlet in 1994 of the existence of two prominent variants of socialism, namely one based on a [[Marxism–Leninism|Marxist–Leninist]] economic determinist and collectivist tradition and the other being an [[ethical socialism]] based on values of "social justice, the equal worth of each citizen, equality of opportunity, community".<ref name="Stephen D. Tansey 2008. Pp. 97">{{cite book |first1=Stephen D. |last1=Tansey |first2=Nigel A. |last2=Jackson |title=Politics: the basics |edition=Fourth |location=Oxon, England, UK; New York City, USA |publisher=[[Routledge]] |date=2008 |page=97}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Blair |first=Tony |date=1994 |title=Socialism |url=https://digital.library.lse.ac.uk/objects/lse:tim417xoh |journal=Fabian Pamphlet |publisher=[[Fabian Society]] |volume=565 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141019055456/https://digital.library.lse.ac.uk/objects/lse:tim417xoh |archive-date=19 October 2014 |via=[[London School of Economics]]}}</ref> Blair is a particular follower of the ideas and writings of Giddens.<ref name="bbc07" />
Former Prime Minister [[Tony Blair]] is cited as a Third Way politician.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2005/may/08/leaders.labour |title=Leader: Blair's new third way |newspaper=[[The Guardian]] |date=8 May 2005 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140716002943/https://www.theguardian.com/news/2005/may/08/leaders.labour |archive-date=16 July 2014}}</ref><ref name="bbc07"/> According to a former member of Blair's staff, Blair and the [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]] learnt from and owes a debt to [[Bob Hawke]]'s government in Australia in the 1980s on how to govern as a Third Way party.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/how-the-british-came-saw-and-helped-rudd/2007/12/16/1197740090746.html?page=2 |title=How the British came, saw and helped Rudd |work=[[The Age]] |date=17 December 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071218162635/http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/how-the-british-came-saw-and-helped-rudd/2007/12/16/1197740090746.html?page=2 |archive-date=18 December 2007}}</ref> Blair wrote in a [[Fabian Society|Fabian]] pamphlet in 1994 of the existence of two prominent variants of socialism, namely one based on a [[Marxism–Leninism|Marxist–Leninist]] economic determinist and collectivist tradition and the other being an [[ethical socialism]] based on values of "social justice, the equal worth of each citizen, equality of opportunity, community".<ref name="Stephen D. Tansey 2008. Pp. 97">{{cite book |first1=Stephen D. |last1=Tansey |first2=Nigel A. |last2=Jackson |title=Politics: the basics |edition=Fourth |location=Oxon, England, UK; New York City, USA |publisher=[[Routledge]] |date=2008 |page=97}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Blair |first=Tony |date=1994 |title=Socialism |url=https://digital.library.lse.ac.uk/Documents/Detail/socialism-1994/119717 |journal=Fabian Pamphlet |publisher=[[Fabian Society]] |volume=565 }}</ref> Blair is a particular follower of the ideas and writings of Giddens.<ref name="bbc07" />


[[File:Clinton Blair.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Bill Clinton]] and [[Tony Blair]], early adherents of the Third Way in the 1990s]]
In 1998, Blair, then [[Leader of the Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party Leader]] and [[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom]], described the Third Way, how it relates to social democracy and its relation with both the [[Old Left]] and the [[New Right]], as follows:
In 1998, Blair, then [[Leader of the Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party Leader]] and [[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom]], described the Third Way, how it relates to social democracy and its relation with both the [[Old Left]] and the [[New Right]], as follows:
{{blockquote|The Third Way stands for a modernised social democracy, passionate in its commitment to social justice and the goals of the centre-left. ... But it is a third way because it moves decisively beyond an Old Left preoccupied by state control, high taxation and producer interests; and a New Right treating public investment, and often the very notions of "society" and collective endeavour, as evils to be undone.{{sfn|Romano|2006}}}}
{{blockquote|The Third Way stands for a modernised social democracy, passionate in its commitment to social justice and the goals of the centre-left. ... But it is a third way because it moves decisively beyond an Old Left preoccupied by state control, high taxation and producer interests; and a New Right treating public investment, and often the very notions of "society" and collective endeavour, as evils to be undone.{{sfn|Romano|2006}}}}
Line 93: Line 121:
In 2002, Anthony Giddens listed problems facing the New Labour government, naming [[Spin (public relations)|spin]] as the biggest failure because its damage to the party's image was difficult to rebound from. He also challenged the failure of the [[Millennium Dome]] project and Labour's inability to deal with irresponsible businesses. Giddens saw Labour's ability to marginalise the [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative Party]] as a success as well its economic policy, welfare reform and certain aspects of education. Giddens criticised what he called Labour's "half-way houses", including the [[National Health Service]] and environmental and constitutional reform.<ref name="Grice">{{cite news |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/architect-of-third-way-attacks-new-labours-policy-failures-9269156.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220507/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/architect-of-third-way-attacks-new-labours-policy-failures-9269156.html |archive-date=7 May 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |title=Architect of 'Third Way' attacks New Labour's policy 'failures' |last=Grice |first=Andrew |date=7 January 2002 |work=[[The Independent]] |access-date=13 June 2017}}{{cbignore}}</ref>
In 2002, Anthony Giddens listed problems facing the New Labour government, naming [[Spin (public relations)|spin]] as the biggest failure because its damage to the party's image was difficult to rebound from. He also challenged the failure of the [[Millennium Dome]] project and Labour's inability to deal with irresponsible businesses. Giddens saw Labour's ability to marginalise the [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative Party]] as a success as well its economic policy, welfare reform and certain aspects of education. Giddens criticised what he called Labour's "half-way houses", including the [[National Health Service]] and environmental and constitutional reform.<ref name="Grice">{{cite news |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/architect-of-third-way-attacks-new-labours-policy-failures-9269156.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220507/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/architect-of-third-way-attacks-new-labours-policy-failures-9269156.html |archive-date=7 May 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |title=Architect of 'Third Way' attacks New Labour's policy 'failures' |last=Grice |first=Andrew |date=7 January 2002 |work=[[The Independent]] |access-date=13 June 2017}}{{cbignore}}</ref>


In 2008, [[Charles Clarke]], a former United Kingdom [[Home Secretary]] and the first senior [[Blairite]] to attack Prime Minister [[Gordon Brown]] openly and in print, stated: "We should discard the techniques of '[[Triangulation (politics)|triangulation]]' and 'dividing lines' with the Conservatives, which lead to the not entirely unjustified charge that we simply follow proposals from the Conservatives or the right-wing media, to minimise differences and remove lines of attack against us".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.theage.com.au/text/articles/2008/05/07/1210131068738.html |title=Most Britons want Brown to go: poll |last=Totaro |first=Paola |work=[[The Age]] |date=8 May 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080514043042/http://www.theage.com.au/text/articles/2008/05/07/1210131068738.html |archive-date=14 May 2008 |access-date=8 May 2008}}</ref>
In 2008, [[Charles Clarke]], a former United Kingdom [[Home Secretary]] and the first senior [[Blairite]] to criticise Prime Minister [[Gordon Brown]] openly and in print, stated: "We should discard the techniques of '[[Triangulation (politics)|triangulation]]' and 'dividing lines' with the Conservatives, which lead to the not entirely unjustified charge that we simply follow proposals from the Conservatives or the right-wing media, to minimise differences and remove lines of attack against us".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.theage.com.au/text/articles/2008/05/07/1210131068738.html |title=Most Britons want Brown to go: poll |last=Totaro |first=Paola |work=[[The Age]] |date=8 May 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080514043042/http://www.theage.com.au/text/articles/2008/05/07/1210131068738.html |archive-date=14 May 2008 |access-date=8 May 2008}}</ref>


Brown was succeeded by [[Ed Miliband]]'s [[One Nation Labour]] in 2010 and self-described democratic socialist [[Jeremy Corbyn]] in 2015 as the [[Leader of the Labour Party (UK)|Leader of the Labour Party]].<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.theweek.co.uk/labour-leader/64564/jeremy-corbyn-what-will-be-his-policies |title=Jeremy Corbyn's policies: how will he lead Labour? |date=12 September 2015 |work=[[The Week]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150913214655/http://www.theweek.co.uk/labour-leader/64564/jeremy-corbyn-what-will-be-his-policies |archive-date=13 September 2015}}</ref> This led some to comment that New Labour is "dead and buried".<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jun/13/new-labour-dead-jeremy-corbyn-shadow-cabinet-socialist-labour |title=New Labour is dead. Jeremy Corbyn's shadow cabinet must stay as it is |last=Jones |first=Owen |author-link=Owen Jones |newspaper=[[The Guardian]] |date=13 June 2017 |access-date=8 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170706025654/https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jun/13/new-labour-dead-jeremy-corbyn-shadow-cabinet-socialist-labour |archive-date=6 July 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/08/jeremy-corbyn-labour-britain/401492/ |title=How a Socialist Prime Minister Might Govern Britain |last=Calamur |first=Krishnadev |newspaper=[[The Atlantic]] |date=18 August 2015 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160419015445/http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/08/jeremy-corbyn-labour-britain/401492/ |archive-date=19 April 2016 |access-date=8 February 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2015/09/12/death-new-labour-jeremy-corbyns-socialist-party-begins-period/ |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220112/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2015/09/12/death-new-labour-jeremy-corbyns-socialist-party-begins-period/ |archive-date=12 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |title=Death of New Labour as Jeremy Corbyn's socialist party begins a period of civil war |last1=Ross |first1=Tim |last2=Dominiczak |first2=Peter |last3=Riley-Smith |first3=Ben |newspaper=[[The Daily Telegraph]] |date=30 March 2018 |access-date=8 February 2020}}{{cbignore}}</ref>
Brown was succeeded by [[Ed Miliband]]'s [[One Nation Labour]] in [[2010 Labour Party leadership election (UK)|2010]] and self-described democratic socialist [[Jeremy Corbyn]] in [[2015 Labour Party leadership election (UK)|2015]] as the [[Leader of the Labour Party (UK)|Leader of the Labour Party]].<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.theweek.co.uk/labour-leader/64564/jeremy-corbyn-what-will-be-his-policies |title=Jeremy Corbyn's policies: how will he lead Labour? |date=12 September 2015 |work=[[The Week]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150913214655/http://www.theweek.co.uk/labour-leader/64564/jeremy-corbyn-what-will-be-his-policies |archive-date=13 September 2015}}</ref> This led some to comment that New Labour is "dead and buried".<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jun/13/new-labour-dead-jeremy-corbyn-shadow-cabinet-socialist-labour |title=New Labour is dead. Jeremy Corbyn's shadow cabinet must stay as it is |last=Jones |first=Owen |author-link=Owen Jones |newspaper=[[The Guardian]] |date=13 June 2017 |access-date=8 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170706025654/https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jun/13/new-labour-dead-jeremy-corbyn-shadow-cabinet-socialist-labour |archive-date=6 July 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/08/jeremy-corbyn-labour-britain/401492/ |title=How a Socialist Prime Minister Might Govern Britain |last=Calamur |first=Krishnadev |newspaper=[[The Atlantic]] |date=18 August 2015 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160419015445/http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/08/jeremy-corbyn-labour-britain/401492/ |archive-date=19 April 2016 |access-date=8 February 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2015/09/12/death-new-labour-jeremy-corbyns-socialist-party-begins-period/ |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220112/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2015/09/12/death-new-labour-jeremy-corbyns-socialist-party-begins-period/ |archive-date=12 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |title=Death of New Labour as Jeremy Corbyn's socialist party begins a period of civil war |last1=Ross |first1=Tim |last2=Dominiczak |first2=Peter |last3=Riley-Smith |first3=Ben |newspaper=[[The Daily Telegraph]] |date=30 March 2018 |access-date=8 February 2020}}{{cbignore}}</ref> [[Keir Starmer]], now the Prime Minister, succeeded Corbyn in [[2020 Labour Party leadership election (UK)|2020]], and has since reverted on his initial more left-wing pledges, in favour of [[centrist]] policies more associated with [[New Labour]].


The Third Way as practised under New Labour has been criticised as being effectively a new, [[centre-right]]<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/uk_politics/2000/labour_centenary/651231.stm |title=Sacrifices in the scramble for power |work=[[BBC News]] |date=22 February 2000 |quote=Some even go so far as to say New Labour is a betrayal of everything the party's founders stood for and that, to all intents and purposes, is a different party merely using the same name. They often claim it represents Margaret Thatcher's greatest victory in wiping socialism off the British political map. Under New Labour, the demand for "the common ownership of the means of production" has been dumped and the free market warmly embraced. Trade unions, who helped found the party, are now held at arms length. ... Instead, New Labour looks determined to remain firmly in the centre of British politics - even though the centre moved decidedly to the right during the Thatcher years. |access-date=18 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130731002047/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/uk_politics/2000/labour_centenary/651231.stm |archive-date=31 July 2013}}</ref> and [[neoliberal]] party.<ref name="Cammack" /> Some such as Glen O'Hara have argued that while containing "elements that we could term neoliberal", New Labour was more [[left-leaning]] than it is given credit for.<ref>{{cite news |last=O'Nara |first=Glen |date=20 November 2018 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/nov/20/new-labour-neoliberal-left-tony-blair |title=New Labour was far more leftwing than it is given credit for |work=[[The Guardian]] |quote=A great deal of what Tony Blair did in power was not neoliberal at all, or had neoliberal elements but was aimed in a quite different direction, or was better thought of as social democratic or even socialist. ... The creation of a national minimum wage and a tax credits system benefitting the low paid halted the remorseless march of inequality that had so scarred Britain in the 1980s. ... No government that rebuilt the public sphere, radically improved the state healthcare system, improved maintained schools and took on homelessness can possibly be painted only in those terms. |access-date=18 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181123014250/https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/nov/20/new-labour-neoliberal-left-tony-blair |archive-date=23 November 2018}}</ref>
The Third Way as practised under New Labour has been criticised as being effectively a new, [[centre-right]]<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/uk_politics/2000/labour_centenary/651231.stm |title=Sacrifices in the scramble for power |work=[[BBC News]] |date=22 February 2000 |quote=Some even go so far as to say New Labour is a betrayal of everything the party's founders stood for and that, to all intents and purposes, is a different party merely using the same name. They often claim it represents Margaret Thatcher's greatest victory in wiping socialism off the British political map. Under New Labour, the demand for "the common ownership of the means of production" has been dumped and the free market warmly embraced. Trade unions, who helped found the party, are now held at arms length. ... Instead, New Labour looks determined to remain firmly in the centre of British politics - even though the centre moved decidedly to the right during the Thatcher years. |access-date=18 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130731002047/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/uk_politics/2000/labour_centenary/651231.stm |archive-date=31 July 2013}}</ref> and [[neoliberal]] party.<ref name="Cammack" /> Some such as Glen O'Hara have argued that while containing "elements that we could term neoliberal", New Labour was more [[left-leaning]] than it is given credit for.<ref>{{cite news |last=O'Nara |first=Glen |date=20 November 2018 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/nov/20/new-labour-neoliberal-left-tony-blair |title=New Labour was far more leftwing than it is given credit for |work=[[The Guardian]] |quote=A great deal of what Tony Blair did in power was not neoliberal at all, or had neoliberal elements but was aimed in a quite different direction, or was better thought of as social democratic or even socialist. ... The creation of a national minimum wage and a tax credits system benefitting the low paid halted the remorseless march of inequality that had so scarred Britain in the 1980s. ... No government that rebuilt the public sphere, radically improved the state healthcare system, improved maintained schools and took on homelessness can possibly be painted only in those terms. |access-date=18 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181123014250/https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/nov/20/new-labour-neoliberal-left-tony-blair |archive-date=23 November 2018}}</ref>


=== United States ===
=== United States ===
{{see also|New Democrats|Rockefeller Republican|Third Way (United States)}}
{{Liberalism US|schools}}
[[File:Bill Clinton with Professor Anthony Giddens (Joint Chair), 2001.jpg|thumb|[[Anthony Giddens]] and President Clinton, two Third Way proponents]]
{{see also|Third Way in the United States|New Democrats (United States)|Rockefeller Republican|Third Way (United States)}}
In the United States, Third Way adherents embrace [[fiscal conservatism]] to a greater extent than traditional economic liberals, advocate some replacement of [[welfare (financial aid)|welfare]] with [[workfare]] and sometimes have a stronger preference for market solutions to traditional problems (as in [[pollution market]]s) while rejecting pure ''[[laissez-faire]]'' economics and other [[Libertarianism in the United States|libertarian]] positions. The Third Way style of governing was firmly adopted and partly redefined during the [[Clinton Administration|administration]] of [[President of the United States|President]] [[Bill Clinton]].<ref>{{cite book |title=The Survivor: Bill Clinton in the White House |first=John F. |last=Harris |publisher=[[Random House]] |date=2005}}</ref>
In the United States, Third Way adherents historically embraced [[fiscal conservatism]] to a greater extent than traditional economic liberals, advocated for some replacement of [[welfare (financial aid)|welfare]] with [[workfare]], and sometimes held a stronger preference for market solutions to traditional problems (as in [[pollution market]]s) while rejecting pure ''[[laissez-faire]]'' economics and other [[Libertarianism in the United States|libertarian]] positions. The Third Way style of governing was firmly adopted and partly redefined during the [[Clinton Administration|administration]] of [[President of the United States|President]] [[Bill Clinton]].<ref>{{cite book |title=The Survivor: Bill Clinton in the White House |first=John F. |last=Harris |publisher=[[Random House]] |date=2005}}</ref>
 
As a term, it was introduced by political scientist [[Stephen Skowronek]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Skowronek |first=Stephen |date=1993 |title=The Politics Presidents Make |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=0-674-68937-2}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Valelly |first=Rick |date=31 October 2013 |url=http://www.unm.edu/~pre/law/articles_advise/PolSci_Overlooked.htm |title=An Overlooked Theory on Presidential Politics |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160225221559/http://www.unm.edu/~pre/law/articles_advise/PolSci_Overlooked.htm |archive-date=25 February 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Shea |first=Christopher |date=23 November 2003 |url=https://archive.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/articles/2003/11/23/regime_change/ |title=Regime change |work=[[The Boston Globe]] |access-date=15 February 2020}}</ref> Third Way presidents "undermine the opposition by borrowing policies from it in an effort to seize the middle and with it to achieve political dominance". Examples of this are [[Richard Nixon]]'s economic policies, which were a continuation of [[Lyndon B. Johnson]]'s [[Great Society]], as well as Clinton's [[Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act|welfare reform]] later.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Federal Deficit Mess |first=Richard |last=Posner |author-link=Richard Posner |url=http://www.becker-posner-blog.com/2011/07/the-federal-deficit-messposner.html |work=The Becker-Posner Blog |date=17 July 2011 |quote=Obama resembles such Presidents as Nixon and Clinton in the following respect. They are what the political scientist Stephen Skowronek calls practitioners of "third way" politics (Tony Blair was another), who undermine the opposition by borrowing policies from it in an effort to seize the middle and with it to achieve political dominance. Think of Nixon's economic policies, which were a continuation of Johnson's "Great Society"; Clinton's welfare reform and support of capital punishment; and Obama's pragmatic centrism, reflected in his embrace, albeit very recent, of entitlements reform. |access-date=22 July 2011}}</ref> [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]] also was a supporter of a "middle way".<ref>{{Cite journal|url=https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/dissertations/AAI9952203/|title=Pursuing the "middle way": Eisenhower Republicanism, 1952--1964|first=Steven Thomas|last=Wagner|date=1 January 1999|journal=Theses and Dissertations Available from ProQuest|pages=1–282}}</ref>


As a term, it was introduced by political scientist [[Stephen Skowronek]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Skowronek |first=Stephen |date=1993 |title=The Politics Presidents Make |isbn=0-674-68937-2}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Valelly |first=Rick |date=31 October 2013 |url=http://www.unm.edu/~pre/law/articles_advise/PolSci_Overlooked.htm |title=An Overlooked Theory on Presidential Politics |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160225221559/http://www.unm.edu/~pre/law/articles_advise/PolSci_Overlooked.htm |archive-date=25 February 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Shea |first=Christopher |date=23 November 2003 |url=http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/articles/2003/11/23/regime_change/ |title=Regime change |work=[[The Boston Globe]] |access-date=15 February 2020}}</ref> Third Way presidents "undermine the opposition by borrowing policies from it in an effort to seize the middle and with it to achieve political dominance". Examples of this are [[Richard Nixon]]'s economic policies which were a continuation of [[Lyndon B. Johnson]]'s [[Great Society]] as well as Clinton's [[Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act|welfare reform]] later.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Federal Deficit Mess |first=Richard |last=Posner |author-link=Richard Posner |url=http://www.becker-posner-blog.com/2011/07/the-federal-deficit-messposner.html |work=The Becker-Posner Blog |date=17 July 2011 |quote=Obama resembles such Presidents as Nixon and Clinton in the following respect. They are what the political scientist Stephen Skowronek calls practitioners of "third way" politics (Tony Blair was another), who undermine the opposition by borrowing policies from it in an effort to seize the middle and with it to achieve political dominance. Think of Nixon's economic policies, which were a continuation of Johnson's "Great Society"; Clinton's welfare reform and support of capital punishment; and Obama's pragmatic centrism, reflected in his embrace, albeit very recent, of entitlements reform. |access-date=22 July 2011}}</ref>
[[File:Bill Clinton with Professor Anthony Giddens (Joint Chair), 2001.jpg|thumb|left|[[Anthony Giddens]] and President Clinton, two Third Way proponents]]


Along with Blair, Prodi, [[Gerhard Schröder]] and other leading Third Way adherents, Clinton organised conferences to promote the Third Way philosophy in 1997 at [[Chequers]] in England.<ref>{{cite book |last=Blumenthal |first=Sidney |date=2003 |title=The Clinton Wars: An Insider's Account of the White House Years |publisher=[[Penguin Books]] |isbn=978-0141006963}}</ref><ref name="autogenerated2">{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/771608.stm |title='Third Way' gets world hearing |work=[[BBC News]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030402175654/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/771608.stm |archive-date=2 April 2003}}</ref> The [[Third Way (United States)|Third Way]] think tank and the [[Democratic Leadership Council]] are adherents of Third Way politics.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ndol.org/ndol_ci.cfm?kaid=128&subid=187&contentid=895 |title=About The Third Way |website=New Democrats Online |archive-url=https://archive.today/20010628014808/http://www.ndol.org/ndol_ci.cfm?kaid=128&subid=187&contentid=895 |archive-date=28 June 2001}}</ref>
Along with Blair, Prodi, [[Gerhard Schröder]] and other leading Third Way adherents, Clinton organised conferences to promote the Third Way philosophy in 1997 at [[Chequers]] in England.<ref>{{cite book |last=Blumenthal |first=Sidney |date=2003 |title=The Clinton Wars: An Insider's Account of the White House Years |publisher=[[Penguin Books]] |isbn=978-0141006963}}</ref><ref name="autogenerated2">{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/771608.stm |title='Third Way' gets world hearing |work=[[BBC News]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030402175654/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/771608.stm |archive-date=2 April 2003}}</ref> The [[Third Way (United States)|Third Way]] think tank and the [[Democratic Leadership Council]] are adherents of Third Way politics.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ndol.org/ndol_ci.cfm?kaid=128&subid=187&contentid=895 |title=About The Third Way |website=New Democrats Online |archive-url=https://archive.today/20010628014808/http://www.ndol.org/ndol_ci.cfm?kaid=128&subid=187&contentid=895 |archive-date=28 June 2001}}</ref>


In 2013, American lawyer and former bank regulator [[William K. Black]] wrote that "Third Way is this group that pretends sometimes to be centre-left but is actually completely a creation of [[Wall Street]]—it's run by Wall Street for Wall Street with this false flag operation as if it were a center-left group. It's nothing of the sort".<ref name="Bill-Black-TRNN-2013-03-31" /><ref name="Bill-Black-HuffPo-2013-01-10" /><ref name="Bill-Black-AlterNet-2013-03-03" />
In 2013, American lawyer and former bank regulator [[William K. Black]] criticised then-extant Third Way movements: "Third Way is this group that pretends sometimes to be centre-left but is actually completely a creation of [[Wall Street]] – it's run by Wall Street for Wall Street with this false flag operation as if it were a center-left group. It's nothing of the sort".<ref name="Bill-Black-TRNN-2013-03-31" /><ref name="Bill-Black-HuffPo-2013-01-10" /><ref name="Bill-Black-AlterNet-2013-03-03" />


=== Other countries ===
=== Other countries ===
[[File:Wim Kok 1994.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Wim Kok]], who led two [[Purple (government)|purple coalitions]] as [[Prime Minister of the Netherlands]] from 1994 to 2002]]
[[File:Wim Kok 1994.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Wim Kok]], who led two [[Purple (government)|purple coalitions]] as [[Prime Minister of the Netherlands]] from 1994 to 2002]]
Other leaders who have adopted elements of the Third Way style of governance include [[Edi Rama]] in Albania,<ref>{{cite news |title="The Rest is Politics" – Prime Minister Edi Rama interview with radio show by Alaister and Rory Stewart |url=https://www.kryeministria.al/en/newsroom/pjesa-tjeter-eshte-politike-kryeministri-rama-interviste-per-emisionin-radiofonik-nga-alaister-campbell-dhe-rory-stewart/ |publisher=[[Council of Ministers (Albania)]] |date=23 September 2022 |access-date=2 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230102215700/https://www.kryeministria.al/en/newsroom/pjesa-tjeter-eshte-politike-kryeministri-rama-interviste-per-emisionin-radiofonik-nga-alaister-campbell-dhe-rory-stewart/ |archive-date=2 January 2023}}</ref> [[Fernando de la Rúa]] in Argentina,{{sfn|Demmers|Fernández Jilberto|Hogenboom|2004|pp=37, 44}} [[Viktor Klima]] and [[Alfred Gusenbauer]] in Austria,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.progressonline.org.uk/2016/02/05/letter-from-vienna/ |title=Letter from ... Vienna |last=Novak |first=Philipp |date=5 February 2016 |publisher=Progress Online |access-date=7 November 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160801155352/http://www.progressonline.org.uk/2016/02/05/letter-from-vienna/ |archive-date=1 August 2016}}</ref> [[Fernando Henrique Cardoso]] in Brazil,{{sfn|Demmers|Fernández Jilberto|Hogenboom|2004|pp=37, 44}}<ref>{{cite thesis |last=Schreiber |first=Leon Amos |date=2011 |title=The third way in Brazil? Lula's presidency examined |publisher=[[Stellenbosch University]] |url=http://scholar.sun.ac.za/handle/10019.1/17971 |access-date=8 November 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161109152232/https://scholar.sun.ac.za/handle/10019.1/17971 |archive-date=9 November 2016}}</ref> [[Kiril Petkov]] in Bulgaria,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.24chasa.bg/bulgaria/article/10215957 |date=25 September 2021 |script-title=bg:За седми път по Третия път в търсене на спасител |title=Za sedmi pŭt po Tretiya pŭt v tŭrsene na spasitel |trans-title=For the seventh time on the Third Road in search of a savior |language=bg |publisher=24 часа |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221207194335/https://www.24chasa.bg/bulgaria/article/10215957 |archive-date=7 December 2022}}</ref> [[Jean Chrétien]] and [[Paul Martin]] in Canada,<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/06/business/worldbusiness/the-irresistible-unassailable-third-way-not-anymore.html?_r=0 |title=The irresistible, unassailable Third Way? Not anymore |last=Altman |first=Daniel |date=6 July 2005 |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |access-date=8 November 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170811145110/http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/06/business/worldbusiness/the-irresistible-unassailable-third-way-not-anymore.html?_r=0 |archive-date=11 August 2017}}</ref> [[Ricardo Lagos]] and [[Michelle Bachelet]] (only her first period) in Chile,<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2000/01/18/world/man-ricardo-lagos-escobar-chilean-socialist-clinton-blair-mold.html |title=Man in the News: Ricardo Lagos Escobar; A Chilean Socialist in the Clinton-Blair Mold |last=Krauss |first=Clifford |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=18 January 2000 |access-date=9 November 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305025422/https://www.nytimes.com/2000/01/18/world/man-ricardo-lagos-escobar-chilean-socialist-clinton-blair-mold.html |archive-date=5 March 2016}}</ref>{{sfn|Garibaldo|2008}} [[Juan Manuel Santos]] in Colombia, [[Óscar Arias]], [[José María Figueres]], [[Laura Chinchilla]], [[Carlos Alvarado Quesada]], [[Luis Guillermo Solís]] and [[Rodrigo Chaves]] in Costa Rica,<ref>{{harvnb|Garibaldo|2008}}; {{harvnb|La Nación, 2016}}; {{harvnb|Lioy|2020|p=160}}; {{harvnb|AP|2014}}; {{harvnb|Murillo|2017}}; {{harvnb|Araya|2022}}</ref> [[Helle Thorning-Schmidt]] in Denmark,<ref>{{cite journal |last=Herløv Lund |first=Henrik |date=15 October 2005 |title=Helle Thorning Schmidt: "New Labour" i Danmark? |trans-title=Helle Thorning Schmidt: "New Labour" in Denmark? |url=http://www.kritiskdebat.dk/print_2.php?item_id=266 |language=da |journal=Kritisk Debat |access-date=8 November 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181109234958/http://kritiskdebat.dk/print_2.php?item_id=266 |archive-date=9 November 2018}}</ref> [[Leonel Fernández]], [[Hipólito Mejía]], [[Danilo Medina]] and [[Luis Abinader]] in the Dominican Republic,{{sfn|Garibaldo|2008}}<ref>{{cite news |url=https://hoy.com.do/gobierno-es-de-la-%C2%93tercera-via%C2%94/ |title=Gobierno es de la tercera vía |language=es |trans-title=Government is third way |date=21 March 2006 |newspaper=Hoy |access-date=2 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230102091233/https://hoy.com.do/gobierno-es-de-la-%C2%93tercera-via%C2%94/ |archive-date=2 January 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://csis-website-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/legacy_files/files/media/csis/pubs/hf_v08_08.pdf |title=The Dominican Republic: Economic Miracles, Political Uncertainties |first=Howard J. |last=Wiarda |date=21 April 2000 |newspaper=[[Center for Strategic and International Studies]] |access-date=2 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201226111025/https://csis-website-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/legacy_files/files/media/csis/pubs/hf_v08_08.pdf |archive-date=26 December 2020}}</ref> [[Rodrigo Borja Cevallos]], [[Abdalá Bucaram]], [[Lucio Gutiérrez]] and [[Lenín Moreno]] in [[Ecuador]],<ref>{{harvnb|Demmers|Fernández Jilberto|Hogenboom|2004|pp=37, 44}}; {{harvnb|Russell|2010|p=284}}; {{harvnb|Collyns|2019}}; {{harvnb|Vega|Delgado|2018}}; {{harvnb|Bronner|Kueffner|2019}}; {{harvnb|Long|2017}}</ref><ref name="New policy">{{Cite news |url=https://www.economist.com/the-americas/2019/04/11/lenin-morenos-new-economic-policy |title=Lenín Moreno's new economic policy |date=11 April 2019 |newspaper=[[The Economist]] |access-date=11 October 2019 |issn=0013-0613 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201107230633/https://www.economist.com/the-americas/2019/04/11/lenin-morenos-new-economic-policy |archive-date=7 November 2020}}</ref> [[Paavo Lipponen]] in Finland,<ref name="conpol" /> [[Gerhard Schröder]] and [[Olaf Scholz]] of [[Germany]],<ref name="BBC" />{{sfn|Barrientos|Powell|2004|p=18}} [[Costas Simitis]] in Greece,<ref>{{cite journal |last=Tassis |first=Chrisanthos D. |date=December 2015 |title=Transformation of Policies and Politics in Greece towards and inside the European Union 1950-2012 |url=http://rhpsnet.com/journals/rhps/Vol_3_No_2_December_2015/5.pdf |journal=Review of History and Political Science |volume=3 |issue=2 |pages=41–49 |doi=10.15640/rhps.v3n2a5 |access-date=8 November 2016 |doi-access=free}}</ref> [[Álvaro Colom]] in Guatemala,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.diariodeleon.es/articulo/internacional/guatemala-elegira-presidente-segunda-vuelta-electoral/20031110010000686456.html |title=Guatemala elegirá a su presidente en la segunda vuelta electoral |language=es |trans-title=Guatemala will elect its president in the second electoral round |date=10 November 2003 |work=[[:es:Diario de León|Diario de León]] |access-date=14 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230326231416/https://www.diariodeleon.es/articulo/internacional/guatemala-elegira-presidente-segunda-vuelta-electoral/20031110010000686456.html |archive-date=26 March 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://revista.drclas.harvard.edu/guatemala-today/ |title=Guatemala Today – Many Shades of Gray |last=Rosenberg |first=H. Michael |date=28 November 2003 |work=[[Harvard University]] |access-date=14 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211022224901/https://revista.drclas.harvard.edu/guatemala-today/ |archive-date=22 October 2021}}</ref> [[Ferenc Gyurcsány]] in Hungary,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/a93a6726-cdad-11da-afcd-0000779e2340.html?ft_site=falcon&desktop=true |title=Man who would be Blair |last=Condon |first=Christopher |date=17 April 2006 |work=[[Financial Times]] |access-date=8 November 2016 }}</ref> [[Ehud Barak]], [[Ehud Olmert]] and [[Yair Lapid]] in Israel,<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.csmonitor.com/2001/0104/p2s1.html/(page)/2 |title=As Clinton exits, 'third way' faces setback |work=[[Christian Science Monitor]] |last=Brown |first=Justin |date=January 2001 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/dispatchesfromwa0000gree |url-access=registration |title=Dispatches from the War Room: In the Trenches with Five Extraordinary Leaders |last=Greenberg |first=Stanley B. |publisher=Thomas Dunne Books |year=2009 |page=[https://archive.org/details/dispatchesfromwa0000gree/page/313 313] |quote=The stories and reality increased the pressure on the government to make investments to relieve poverty, but Barak was self-consciously committed to 'Third Way' economic policies of lower spending, inflation, and interest rates that produced such growth in the United States and Britain. |isbn=9780312351526}}</ref> [[Muammar Gaddafi]] in Libya,<ref>{{cite news |title=Tony Blair listened to Colonel Gaddafi's third way theories |url=http://www.businessinsider.com/tony-blair-listened-to-colonel-gaddafis-third-way-theories-2015-12 |work=[[Business Insider]] |last=Wilson |first=Jeremy |date=11 December 2015 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/politics/2014/04/colonel-and-his-third-way |title=The colonel and his third way |last=Giddens |first=Anthony |author-link=Anthony Giddens |date=28 August 2006 |work=[[New Statesman]] |access-date=14 November 2016 }}{{dead link|date=January 2023}}</ref> [[Thaksin Shinawatra]] of Thailand,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Hawkins |first1=Kirk |last2=Selway |first2=Joel |date=17 July 2017 |title=Thaksin the Populist? |url=https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s41111-017-0073-z |journal=Chinese Political Science Review |volume= 2|issue= 3|pages= 372–394|doi= 10.1007/s41111-017-0073-z|s2cid=256469505 |access-date=25 August 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/thaksin-shinawatra-the-man-who-turned-disaster-into-victory-531510.html |title=Thaksin Shinawatra: The man who turned disaster into victory |last=McGirk |first=Jan |date=7 February 2005 |website=The Independent |publisher=Independent Digital News & Media Ltd |access-date=26 August 2023 |quote=}}</ref> [[Joseph Muscat]] and [[Robert Abela]] in Malta,<ref name="Gauchi">{{Cite book |last=Gauchi |first=Jude Samuel |title=Malta's Labour Party and Social Policy: A Sociological Investigation |publisher=[[University of Malta]] |date=April 2014 |location=Msida}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Bonnici |first=Julian |date=15 January 2018 |title=Malta's Labour Party should learn from mistakes of Blair's third-way politics |url=https://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2018-01-15/local-news/Malta-s-Labour-Party-should-learn-from-mistakes-of-Blair-s-third-way-politics-6736183594 |access-date=5 March 2022 |website=www.independent.com.mt }}</ref> [[Ernesto Zedillo]] in Mexico, [[Milo Đukanović]] in Montenegro,<ref>{{cite news |title=PARTY SYSTEM |url=https://soc.kuleuven.be/io/english/european-party-monitor/montenegro/party-system |publisher=[[KU Leuven]] |date=20 October 2020 |access-date=2 January 2022 }}</ref> [[Wim Kok]] of the Netherlands,<ref>{{cite news |title=Goodbye, third way |first=David |last=Walker |work=[[The Guardian]] |date=3 September 2001 |access-date=21 November 2012 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/sep/03/eu.socialsciences }}</ref> [[Helen Clark]] in New Zealand,<ref>{{cite journal |last=Dalziel |first=Paul |date=December 2001 |title=Third Way Economic Management in New Zealand |journal=[[Economic and Labour Relations Review]] |volume=12 |issue=2 |pages=193–207 |doi=10.1177/103530460101200203 |s2cid=154050948}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.economist.com/node/1811700 |title=An interview with Helen Clark |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |date=8 May 2003 |newspaper=[[The Economist]] |access-date=7 November 2016 }}</ref> [[Ernesto Pérez Balladares]], [[Martín Torrijos]] and [[Laurentino Cortizo]] in Panama,{{sfn|Garibaldo|2008}} [[Alan García]], [[Alejandro Toledo]] and [[Ollanta Humala]] in Peru,{{sfn|Garibaldo|2008}}<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.economist.com/node/569305 |title=Peru contemplates a return to a troubled future |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.-->|date=12 April 2001 |newspaper=[[The Economist]] |access-date=8 November 2016 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/jun/01/peru-president-elections |title=Peru elections: a choice 'between Aids and cancer' |first=Grace |last=Livingstone |date=1 June 2011 |newspaper=[[The Guardian]] |access-date=2 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130930100956/http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/jun/01/peru-president-elections |archive-date=30 September 2013}}</ref> [[Benigno Aquino III|Benigno Aquino]] in the Philippines, [[Leszek Miller]] and [[Marek Belka]] in Poland,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.opendemocracy.net/can-europe-make-it/gavin-rae/false-promise-of-new-left-in-poland |title=The false promise of a new left in Poland |last=Rae |first=Gavin |date=21 August 2013 |publisher=[[OpenDemocracy]] |access-date=8 November 2016 }}</ref> [[António Guterres]] and [[José Sócrates]] of Portugal,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Costa Lobo |first1=Marina |last2=Magalhães |first2=Pedro C. |year=2001 |title=The Portuguese Socialists and the Third Way |url=https://ecpr.eu/Filestore/PaperProposal/aff5acde-4dbc-4182-b92a-3365cafb1802.pdf |access-date=7 November 2016 |journal=European Consortium for Political Research}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |first=Steven |last=Pearlstein |author-link=Steven Pearlstein |title=In Portugal, as in America, a 'Third Way' Is Reemerging |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/05/AR2009050503772.html |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |date=6 May 2009 |access-date=11 May 2009 }}</ref> [[Borut Pahor]] in Slovenia,<ref>{{cite news |first=Tihomir |last=Loza |title=The pin-up leader |url=https://www.politico.eu/article/the-pin-up-leader/ |newspaper=[[Politico]] |date=8 October 2008 |access-date=2 January 2022 }}</ref> [[Thabo Mbeki]] in South Africa,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Vale |first1=Peter |author1-link=Peter Vale |last2=Barrett |first2=Georgina |date=10 December 2009 |title=The curious career of an African modernizer: South Africa's Thabo Mbeki |journal=[[Contemporary Politics]] |volume=15 |issue=4 |pages=445–460 |doi=10.1080/13569770903416521 |s2cid=144117346}}</ref> [[Kim Dae-jung]] and [[Roh Moo-hyun]] in South Korea,<ref>{{cite thesis |last=Chung |first=Johng-Eun |date=October 2012 |title=From Developmental to Neo-Developmental Cultural Industries Policy: The Korean Experience of the "Creative Turn" |type=PhD |publisher=[[University of Glasgow]] |url=http://theses.gla.ac.uk/3676/1/2012ChungPhD.pdf |access-date=9 November 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170811142853/http://theses.gla.ac.uk/3676/1/2012ChungPhD.pdf |archive-date=11 August 2017}}</ref> [[Ingvar Carlsson]] and [[Göran Persson]] in Sweden<ref>{{cite journal |last=Andersson |first=Jenny |date=September 2006 |title=The People's Library and the Electronic Workshop: Comparing Swedish and British Social Democracy |journal=[[Politics & Society]] |volume=34 |issue=3 |pages=431–460 |doi=10.1177/0032329206290472 |s2cid=145605833}}</ref><ref name="conpol">{{cite journal |last1=Kuisma |first1=Mikko |last2=Ryner |first2=Magnus |date=3 September 2012 |title=Third Way decomposition and the rightward shift in Finnish and Swedish politics |journal=[[Contemporary Politics]] |volume=18 |issue=3 |pages=325–342 |doi=10.1080/13569775.2012.702975 |s2cid=154784244}}</ref> and [[Carlos Andrés Pérez]] in Venezuela (only his second term).{{sfn|Russell|2010|p=284}}
Many leaders throughout the world have adopted aspects of Third Way politics. Many concepts of Third Way ideology are also often incorporated in [[Third Position]] ideology. Given the nebulous definition of the ideology, it is often difficult to identify leaders who support Third Way policies.{{Citation needed|date=May 2025}}


==Recent developments==
By the 2010s, social democratic parties that accepted Third Way politics such as [[Triangulation (politics)|triangulation]] and the [[neoliberal]]<ref name="Lavelle 2005" /><ref name="Humphrys 2018" /> shift in policies such as [[austerity]], [[deregulation]], [[free trade]], [[privatisation]] and [[welfare reform]]s such as [[workfare]] experienced a drastic decline<ref>{{harvnb|Guinan|2013|pp=44–60}}; {{harvnb|Karnitschnig|2018}}; {{harvnb|Buck|2018}}; {{harvnb|Lawson|2018}}</ref> as the Third Way had largely [[Social democracy#Decline and rejection of the Third Way (2007–present)|fallen out of favour]] in a phenomenon known as [[Pasokification]].<ref name="Barbieri">{{cite news |url=https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/europe/2017-04-25/death-and-life-social-democracy |title=The Death and Life of Social Democracy |last=Barbieri |first=Pierpaolo |work=[[Foreign Affairs]] |date=25 April 2017 |access-date=15 November 2019}}</ref> Scholars have linked the decline of social democratic parties to the declining number of industrial workers, greater economic prosperity of voters and a tendency for these parties to shift closer to the [[centre-right]] on economic issues, alienating their former base of supporters and voters. This decline has been matched by increased support for more [[left-wing]] and [[Left-wing populism|populist]] parties as well as [[Far-left politics#Radical left parties|Left]] and [[Green party|Green]] [[social-democratic]] parties that rejected neoliberal and Third Way policies.<ref>{{harvnb|Allen|2009|pp=635–653}}; {{harvnb|Benedetto|Hix|Mastrorocco|2019}}; {{harvnb|Loxbo|Hinnfors|Hagevi|Blombäck|Demker|2019|pp=430–441}}; {{harvnb|Berman|Snegovaya|2019|pp=5–19}}</ref>
By the 2010s, social democratic parties that accepted Third Way politics such as [[Triangulation (politics)|triangulation]] and the [[neoliberal]]<ref name="Lavelle 2005" /><ref name="Humphrys 2018" /> shift in policies such as [[austerity]], [[deregulation]], [[free trade]], [[privatisation]] and [[welfare reform]]s such as [[workfare]] experienced a drastic decline<ref>{{harvnb|Guinan|2013|pp=44–60}}; {{harvnb|Karnitschnig|2018}}; {{harvnb|Buck|2018}}; {{harvnb|Lawson|2018}}</ref> as the Third Way had largely [[Social democracy#Decline and rejection of the Third Way (2007–present)|fallen out of favour]] in a phenomenon known as [[Pasokification]].<ref name="Barbieri">{{cite news |url=https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/europe/2017-04-25/death-and-life-social-democracy |title=The Death and Life of Social Democracy |last=Barbieri |first=Pierpaolo |work=[[Foreign Affairs]] |date=25 April 2017 |access-date=15 November 2019}}</ref> Scholars have linked the decline of social democratic parties to the declining number of industrial workers, greater economic prosperity of voters and a tendency for these parties to shift closer to the [[centre-right]] on economic issues, alienating their former base of supporters and voters. This decline has been matched by increased support for more [[left-wing]] and [[Left-wing populism|populist]] parties as well as [[Far-left politics#Radical left parties|Left]] and [[Green party|Green]] [[social-democratic]] parties that rejected neoliberal and Third Way policies.<ref>{{harvnb|Allen|2009|pp=635–653}}; {{harvnb|Benedetto|Hix|Mastrorocco|2019}}; {{harvnb|Loxbo|Hinnfors|Hagevi|Blombäck|Demker|2019|pp=430–441}}; {{harvnb|Berman|Snegovaya|2019|pp=5–19}}</ref>


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== Criticism ==
== Criticism ==
The Third Way has been criticized as being a vague ideology with no specific commitments:
The Third Way has been criticised as being a vague ideology with no specific commitments:
<blockquote>The Third Way is no more than a crude attempt to construct a bogus coalition between the haves and the haves not: Bogus because it entices the haves by assuring them that the economy will be sound and their interests would not be threatened, while promising the have-nots a world free from poverty and injustice. Based on opportunism, it has no ideological commitment at all.{{sfn|Arora|2010|pp=9, 22}}</blockquote>
<blockquote>The Third Way is no more than a crude attempt to construct a bogus coalition between the haves and the haves not: Bogus because it entices the haves by assuring them that the economy will be sound and their interests would not be threatened, while promising the have-nots a world free from poverty and injustice. Based on opportunism, it has no ideological commitment at all.{{sfn|Arora|2010|pp=9, 22}}</blockquote>


After the dismantling of his country's [[Marxism–Leninism|Marxist–Leninist]] government, Czechoslovakia's conservative finance minister [[Václav Klaus]] declared in 1990: "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' [between central planning and the market economy] 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 in the hands of central planners".<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.reason.com/news/show/34729.html |title=No Third Way Out: Creating A Capitalist Czechoslovakia |work=Reason |date=June 1990 |access-date=22 April 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080213035739/http://www.reason.com/news/show/34729.html |archive-date=13 February 2008}}</ref>
After the dismantling of his country's [[Marxism–Leninism|Marxist–Leninist]] government, Czechoslovakia's conservative finance minister [[Václav Klaus]] declared in 1990: "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' [between central planning and the market economy] 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 in the hands of central planners".<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.reason.com/news/show/34729.html |title=No Third Way Out: Creating A Capitalist Czechoslovakia |work=Reason |date=June 1990 |access-date=22 April 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080213035739/http://www.reason.com/news/show/34729.html |archive-date=13 February 2008}}</ref>


[[Left-wing]] opponents of the Third Way argue that it represents social democrats who responded to the [[New Right]] by accepting [[capitalism]]. The Third Way most commonly uses [[Market mechanism|market mechanics]] and [[private ownership]] of the [[means of production]] and in that sense it is fundamentally capitalist.{{sfn|Romano|2006|p=5}} In addition to opponents who have noticed this, other reviews have claimed that Third Way social democrats adjusted to the political climate since the 1980s that favoured capitalism by recognising that outspoken [[opposition to capitalism]] in these circumstances was politically nonviable and that accepting capitalism as the current [[status quo]] and seeking to administer it to challenge ''laissez-faire'' liberals was a more pressing immediate concern.{{sfn|Romano|2006|p=113}} With the rise of neoliberalism in the late 1970s and early 1980s and the Third Way between the 1990s and 2000s, social democracy became synonymous with it.<ref name="Whyman 2005" />{{sfn|Lewis|Surender|2004}} As a result, the section of social democracy that remained committed to the gradual abolition of capitalism and opposed the Third Way merged into democratic socialism.<ref>{{cite book |last=Busky |first=Donald F. |date=20 July 2000 |title=Democratic Socialism: A Global Survey |publisher=Praeger |pages=7–8 |isbn=978-0275968861 |quote=Democratic socialism is the wing of the socialist movement that combines a belief in a socially owned economy with that of political democracy.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=Anderson |editor1-first=Gary L. |editor2-last=Herr |editor2-first=Kathryn G. |date=2007 |title=Encyclopedia of Activism and Social Justice |publisher=[[SAGE Publications]] |page=448 |isbn=978-1412918121 |quote=Some have endorsed the concept of market socialism, a post-capitalist economy that retains market competition but socialises the means of production, and in some versions, extends democracy to the workplace. Some holdout for a non-market, participatory economy. All democratic socialists agree on the need for a democratic alternative to capitalism.}}</ref> Many social democrats opposed to the Third Way overlap with democratic socialists in their committiment to an alternative to capitalism and a post-capitalist economy and have not only criticised the Third Way as anti-socialist<ref name="Cammack">{{cite book |last=Cammack |first=Paul |date=2004 |chapter=Giddens's Way with Words |editor1-last=Hale |editor1-first=Sarah |editor2-last=Leggett |editor2-first=Will |editor3-last=Martell |editor3-first=Luke |title=The Third Way and Beyond: Criticisms, Futures and Alternatives |publisher=[[Manchester University Press]] |isbn=978-0-7190-6598-9}}</ref> and neoliberal,<ref name="Collection 1"/> but also as anti-social-democratic in practice.<ref name="Cammack" />
[[Left-wing]] opponents of the Third Way argue that it represents social democrats who responded to the [[New Right]] by accepting [[capitalism]]. The Third Way most commonly uses [[Market mechanism|market mechanics]] and [[private ownership]] of the [[means of production]] and in that sense it is fundamentally capitalist.{{sfn|Romano|2006|p=5}} In addition to opponents who have noticed this, other reviews have claimed that Third Way social democrats adjusted to the political climate since the 1980s that favoured capitalism by recognising that outspoken [[opposition to capitalism]] in these circumstances was politically nonviable and that accepting capitalism as the current [[status quo]] and seeking to administer it to challenge ''laissez-faire'' liberals was a more pressing immediate concern.{{sfn|Romano|2006|p=113}} With the rise of neoliberalism in the late 1970s and early 1980s and the Third Way between the 1990s and 2000s, social democracy became synonymous with it.<ref name="Whyman 2005" />{{sfn|Lewis|Surender|2004}} As a result, the section of social democracy that remained committed to the gradual abolition of capitalism and opposed the Third Way merged into democratic socialism.<ref>{{cite book |last=Busky |first=Donald F. |year=2000 |title=Democratic Socialism: A Global Survey |publisher=Praeger |pages=7–8 |isbn=978-0275968861 |quote=Democratic socialism is the wing of the socialist movement that combines a belief in a socially owned economy with that of political democracy.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=Anderson |editor1-first=Gary L. |editor2-last=Herr |editor2-first=Kathryn G. |date=2007 |title=Encyclopedia of Activism and Social Justice |publisher=[[SAGE Publications]] |page=448 |isbn=978-1412918121 |quote=Some have endorsed the concept of market socialism, a post-capitalist economy that retains market competition but socialises the means of production, and in some versions, extends democracy to the workplace. Some holdout for a non-market, participatory economy. All democratic socialists agree on the need for a democratic alternative to capitalism.}}</ref> Many social democrats opposed to the Third Way overlap with democratic socialists in their committiment to an alternative to capitalism and a post-capitalist economy and have not only criticised the Third Way as anti-socialist<ref name="Cammack">{{cite book |last=Cammack |first=Paul |date=2004 |chapter=Giddens's Way with Words |editor1-last=Hale |editor1-first=Sarah |editor2-last=Leggett |editor2-first=Will |editor3-last=Martell |editor3-first=Luke |title=The Third Way and Beyond: Criticisms, Futures and Alternatives |publisher=[[Manchester University Press]] |isbn=978-0-7190-6598-9}}</ref> and neoliberal,<ref name="Collection 1"/> but also as anti-social-democratic in practice.<ref name="Cammack" />


[[Democratic socialists|Democratic]] and [[Market socialism|market socialists]] argue that the major reason for the economic shortcomings of [[command economies]] was their authoritarian nature rather than socialism itself, that it was a failure of a specific model and that therefore socialists should support democratic models rather than abandon it. Economists [[Pranab Bardhan]] and [[John Roemer]] argue that [[Soviet-type economic planning|Soviet-type economies]] and [[Marxist–Leninist state]]s failed because they did not create rules and operational criteria for the efficient operation of state enterprises in their administrative, command allocation of resources and commodities and the lack of democracy in the political systems that the Soviet-type economies were combined with. According to them, a form of competitive socialism that rejects dictatorship and authoritarian allocation in favor of democracy could work and prove superior to the [[market economy]].<ref>{{cite book |title=Comparing Economic Systems in the Twenty-First |last1=Gregory |first1=Paul |last2=Stuart |first2=Robert |publisher=[[South-Western College]] Pub |year=2003 |isbn=0-618-26181-8 |page=152}}</ref>
[[Democratic socialists|Democratic]] and [[Market socialism|market socialists]] argue that the major reason for the economic shortcomings of [[command economies]] was their authoritarian nature rather than socialism itself, that it was a failure of a specific model and that therefore socialists should support democratic models rather than abandon it. Economists [[Pranab Bardhan]] and [[John Roemer]] argue that [[Soviet-type economic planning|Soviet-type economies]] and [[Marxist–Leninist state]]s failed because they did not create rules and operational criteria for the efficient operation of state enterprises in their administrative, command allocation of resources and commodities and the lack of democracy in the political systems that the Soviet-type economies were combined with. According to them, a form of competitive socialism that rejects dictatorship and authoritarian allocation in favour of democracy could work and prove superior to the [[market economy]].<ref>{{cite book |title=Comparing Economic Systems in the Twenty-First |last1=Gregory |first1=Paul |last2=Stuart |first2=Robert |publisher=[[South-Western College]] Pub |year=2003 |isbn=0-618-26181-8 |page=152}}</ref>


Although close to [[New Labour]] and a key figure in the development of the Third Way, sociologist Anthony Giddens dissociated himself from many of the interpretations of the Third Way made in the sphere of day-to-day politics.<ref name="Grice" /> For him, it was not a succumbing to [[neoliberalism]] or the dominance of capitalist [[Market (economics)|markets]].{{sfn|Giddens|2000|p=32}} The point was to get beyond both [[market fundamentalism]] and [[top-down socialism]]—to make the values of the [[centre-left]] count in a [[Economic globalisation|globalising world]]. He argued that "the [[Financial regulation|regulation]] of [[financial market]]s is the single most pressing issue in the [[world economy]]" and that "global commitment to [[free trade]] depends upon effective [[Regulatory economics|regulation]] rather than dispenses with the need for it".{{sfn|Giddens|1998|pp=148–149}}
Although close to [[New Labour]] and a key figure in the development of the Third Way, sociologist Anthony Giddens dissociated himself from many of the interpretations of the Third Way made in the sphere of day-to-day politics.<ref name="Grice" /> For him, it was not a succumbing to [[neoliberalism]] or the dominance of capitalist [[Market (economics)|markets]].{{sfn|Giddens|2000|p=32}} The point was to get beyond both [[market fundamentalism]] and [[top-down socialism]] – to make the values of the [[centre-left]] count in a [[Economic globalisation|globalising world]]. He argued that "the [[Financial regulation|regulation]] of [[financial market]]s is the single most pressing issue in the [[world economy]]" and that "global commitment to [[free trade]] depends upon effective [[Regulatory economics|regulation]] rather than dispenses with the need for it".{{sfn|Giddens|1998|pp=148–149}}


== See also ==
== See also ==
 
{{Portal|Liberalism|Politics|Socialism}}
{{cols|colwidth=16em}}
{{cols|colwidth=16em}}
* [[Big Society]]
* [[Big Society]]
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* [[Pasokification]]
* [[Pasokification]]
* [[Social corporatism]]
* [[Social corporatism]]
* [[Social conservatism]]
* [[Syncretic politics]]
* [[Syncretic politics]]
* [[Third force (1996 Russian presidential election)]]
* [[Third Position]]
* [[Third Position]]
* [[Triangulation (politics)]]
* [[Triangulation (politics)]]
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* {{cite book |last1=Arora |first1=N. D. |date=2010 |title=Political Science for Civil Services Main Examination |publisher=Tata [[McGraw-Hill]] Education}}
* {{cite book |last1=Arora |first1=N. D. |date=2010 |title=Political Science for Civil Services Main Examination |publisher=Tata [[McGraw-Hill]] Education}}
* {{cite book |last1=Barrientos |first1=Armando |last2=Powell |first2=Martin |date=2004 |chapter=The Route Map of the Third Way |editor1-last=Hale |editor1-first=Sarah |editor2-last=Leggett |editor2-first=Will |editor3-last=Martell |editor3-first=Luke |title=The Third Way and Beyond: Criticisms, Futures and Alternatives |publisher=[[Manchester University Press]] |pages=9–26 |isbn=978-0-7190-6598-9}}
* {{cite book |last1=Barrientos |first1=Armando |last2=Powell |first2=Martin |date=2004 |chapter=The Route Map of the Third Way |editor1-last=Hale |editor1-first=Sarah |editor2-last=Leggett |editor2-first=Will |editor3-last=Martell |editor3-first=Luke |title=The Third Way and Beyond: Criticisms, Futures and Alternatives |publisher=[[Manchester University Press]] |pages=9–26 |isbn=978-0-7190-6598-9}}
* {{cite web |last1=Benedetto |first1=Giacomo |last2=Hix |first2=Hix |last3=Mastrorocco |first3=Nicola |url=http://personal.lse.ac.uk/hix/Working_Papers/BHM_Rise_and_Fall_of_SD.pdf |title=The Rise and Fall of Social Democracy, 1918-2017 |date=1 July 2019 |access-date=29 November 2019 |archive-date=15 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200215134046/http://personal.lse.ac.uk/hix/Working_Papers/BHM_Rise_and_Fall_of_SD.pdf |url-status=dead}}
* {{cite web |last1=Benedetto |first1=Giacomo |last2=Hix |first2=Hix |last3=Mastrorocco |first3=Nicola |url=http://personal.lse.ac.uk/hix/Working_Papers/BHM_Rise_and_Fall_of_SD.pdf |title=The Rise and Fall of Social Democracy, 1918–2017 |date=1 July 2019 |access-date=29 November 2019 |archive-date=15 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200215134046/http://personal.lse.ac.uk/hix/Working_Papers/BHM_Rise_and_Fall_of_SD.pdf |url-status=dead}}
* {{cite journal |last1=Berman |first1=Sheri |last2=Snegovaya |first2=Maria |url=https://www.journalofdemocracy.org/articles/populism-and-the-decline-of-social-democracy/ |title=Populism and the Decline of Social Democracy |journal=[[Journal of Democracy]] |volume=30 |issue=3 |pages=5–19 |date=10 July 2019 |access-date=29 November 2019 |doi=10.1353/jod.2019.0038 |s2cid=199293070}}
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* {{cite news |last=Collyns |first=Dan |date=10 October 2019 |title=Ecuador paralyzed by national strike as Moreno refuses to step down |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/oct/09/ecuador-strike-lenin-moreno-latest |work=[[The Guardian]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191209013933/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/oct/09/ecuador-strike-lenin-moreno-latest |archive-date=9 December 2019}}
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* {{cite book |last1=Romano |first1=Flavio |date=2006 |title=Clinton and Blair: The Political Economy of the Third Way |series=Routledge Frontiers of Political Economy |volume=75 |location=London |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=978-0-415-37858-1}}
* {{cite journal |last=Russell |first=James W. |url=https://www.erudit.org/en/journals/llt/2010-v66-llt66/llt66rv01.pdf |journal=Reviews / Comptes Rendus - Labour / Le Travail |title=Francisco Panizza, Contemporary Latin America: Development and Democracy Beyond the Washington Consensus (London and New York: Zed Books 2009) |date=2010 |volume=66 |publisher=Canadian Committee on Labour History |access-date=24 January 2023 |issn=1911-4842 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220630220332/https://www.erudit.org/en/journals/llt/2010-v66-llt66/llt66rv01.pdf |archive-date=30 June 2022}}
* {{cite journal |last=Russell |first=James W. |url=https://www.erudit.org/en/journals/llt/2010-v66-llt66/llt66rv01.pdf |journal=Reviews / Comptes Rendus Labour / Le Travail |title=Francisco Panizza, Contemporary Latin America: Development and Democracy Beyond the Washington Consensus (London and New York: Zed Books 2009) |date=2010 |volume=66 |publisher=Canadian Committee on Labour History |access-date=24 January 2023 |issn=1911-4842 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220630220332/https://www.erudit.org/en/journals/llt/2010-v66-llt66/llt66rv01.pdf |archive-date=30 June 2022}}
* {{cite news |last1=Vega |first1=Glenn Ojeda |last2=Delgado |first2=German Peinado |title=Moreno Is Breaking Ranks with the Correa Administration |url=https://www.fairobserver.com/region/latin_america/lenin-moreno-rafael-correa-ecuador-latin-america-politics-news-10291/ |access-date=9 October 2019 |agency=Fair Observer |date=10 September 2018 }}
* {{cite news |last1=Vega |first1=Glenn Ojeda |last2=Delgado |first2=German Peinado |title=Moreno Is Breaking Ranks with the Correa Administration |url=https://www.fairobserver.com/region/latin_america/lenin-moreno-rafael-correa-ecuador-latin-america-politics-news-10291/ |access-date=9 October 2019 |agency=Fair Observer |date=10 September 2018}}
* {{cite web |last=Yuk |first=Pan Kwan |date=10 July 2007 |title=Return from wilderness for 'DSK' |url=https://www.ft.com/content/e82f0cd2-2f10-11dc-b9b7-0000779fd2ac |access-date=28 March 2023 |work=[[Financial Times]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180603171656/https://www.ft.com/content/e82f0cd2-2f10-11dc-b9b7-0000779fd2ac |archive-date=3 June 2018}}
* {{cite web |last=Yuk |first=Pan Kwan |date=10 July 2007 |title=Return from wilderness for 'DSK' |url=https://www.ft.com/content/e82f0cd2-2f10-11dc-b9b7-0000779fd2ac |access-date=28 March 2023 |work=[[Financial Times]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180603171656/https://www.ft.com/content/e82f0cd2-2f10-11dc-b9b7-0000779fd2ac |archive-date=3 June 2018}}
{{refend}}
{{refend}}
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== External links ==
== External links ==
 
{{Wiktionary}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20080305032133/http://www.netnexus.org/library/papers/3way.html "Third Way Debate Summary"]. Nexus.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20080305032133/http://www.netnexus.org/library/papers/3way.html "Third Way Debate Summary"]. Nexus.
* {{cite news |last=Aaronovitch |first=David |author-link=David Aaronovitch |title=Why Tony is not a guitar-wielding fascist dictator |newspaper=[[The Guardian]] |date=1 July 2003|url=https://www.theguardian.com/g2/story/0,3604,988388,00.html}}
* {{cite news |last=Aaronovitch |first=David |author-link=David Aaronovitch |title=Why Tony is not a guitar-wielding fascist dictator |newspaper=[[The Guardian]] |date=1 July 2003|url=https://www.theguardian.com/g2/story/0,3604,988388,00.html}}
* {{cite web |last=Harrington |first=Patrick |author-link=Patrick Harrington (activist) |title=The Third Way an Answer to Blair |publisher=Third Way |url=http://www.thirdway.org/files/articles/blairs.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071013082842/http://www.thirdway.org/files/articles/blairs.html |archive-date=13 October 2007}}
* {{cite web |last=Harrington |first=Patrick |author-link=Patrick Harrington (activist) |title=The Third Way an Answer to Blair |publisher=Third Way |url=http://www.thirdway.org/files/articles/blairs.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071013082842/http://www.thirdway.org/files/articles/blairs.html |archive-date=13 October 2007}}
* {{cite news |last=Geismer |first=Lily |author-link= |title=How the Third Way Made Neoliberal Politics Seem Inevitable |newspaper=[[The Nation]] |date=13 December 2022 |url=https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/third-way-dlc-bill-clinton-tony-blair-1990s-politics/}}
* {{cite news |last=Geismer |first=Lily |author-link= |title=How the Third Way Made Neoliberal Politics Seem Inevitable |newspaper=[[The Nation]] |date=13 December 2022 |url=https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/third-way-dlc-bill-clinton-tony-blair-1990s-politics/}}


{{Liberalism}}
{{Political spectrum}}
{{Political philosophy}}
{{Social democracy}}
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{{New Labour}}
{{Tony Blair}}
{{Tony Blair}}
{{liberalism}}
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{{New Labour}}
{{Bill Clinton}}
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{{Presidency of Bill Clinton}}
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[[Category:Neoliberalism]]
[[Category:Political philosophy]]
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[[Category:Syncretic political movements]]

Latest revision as of 20:55, 3 March 2026


(from left to right, top to bottom) Bill Clinton, Tony Blair, Jean Chrétien, and Gerhard Schröder were affiliated with the Third Way movement.

Template:Social democracy sidebar

The Third Way 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.[1][2]

The Third Way is a reconceptualisation of social democracy. 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.[3]

The Third Way has been promoted by social liberal[4] and social-democratic parties.[5] In the United States, a leading proponent of the Third Way was President Bill Clinton.[6] 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."[7] 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.[8]

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.[9] In 2009, Blair publicly declared support for a "new capitalism".[10]

Policies supported by self-described Third Way supporters vary by region, political circumstances, and ideological leanings. Third Way advocates generally support public-private partnerships, a commitment to fiscal conservatism,[11] combining equality of opportunity with personal responsibility, improving human and social capital, and protection of the environment.[12] But even in pursuit of these ends, Third Way advocates differ in their policies, owing to conflicting priorities. Anthony Giddens, for example – believing that society should be more inclusive to the elderly – called for abolishing the retirement age so people could exit the workforce whenever they have saved enough;[13] French president Emmanuel Macron did the exact opposite, raising the retirement age to balance the budget.[14] The Bill Clinton administration, influenced by the works of the controversial political scientist Charles Murray,[15] was less friendly to the welfare state than Tony Blair.[16]

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,[17][18][19] with some political scientists and analysts characterising the Third Way as an effectively neoliberal movement.[20] It has also been criticised by conservatives, nationalists, classical liberals, and libertarians who advocate for laissez-faire capitalism.[21][22]

Overview[edit | edit source]

Origins[edit | edit source]

As a term, the third way has been used to explain a variety of political courses and ideologies in the last few centuries.[23] These ideas were implemented by progressives in the early 20th century. The term was picked up again in the 1950s by German ordoliberal economists such as Wilhelm Röpke, resulting in the development of the concept of the social market economy. Röpke later distanced himself from the term and located the social market economy as first way in the sense of an advancement of the free-market economy.[24]

During the Prague Spring of 1968, reform economist Ota Šik proposed third way economic reform as part of political liberalisation and democratisation within the country. In historical context, such proposals were better described as liberalised centrally-planned economy rather than the socially-sensitive capitalism that Third Way policies tend to have been identified with in the West. In the 1970s and 1980s, Enrico Berlinguer, leader of the Italian Communist Party, came to advocate a vision of a socialist society that was more pluralist than the real socialism which was typically advocated by official communist parties whilst being more economically egalitarian than social democracy. This was part of the wider trend of Eurocommunism in the communist movement and provided a theoretical basis for Berlinguer's pursuit of the Historic Compromise with the Christian Democrats.[25]

Modern usage[edit | edit source]

Third Way politics is visible in Anthony Giddens' works such as Consequences of Modernity (1990), Modernity and Self-Identity (1991), The Transformation of Intimacy (1992), Beyond Left and Right (1994) and The Third Way: The Renewal of Social Democracy (1998). In Beyond Left and Right, Giddens criticises market socialism and constructs a six-point framework for a reconstituted radical politics that includes the following values:[26]

  1. Repair damaged solidarities.
  2. Recognise the centrality of life politics.
  3. Accept that active trust implies generative politics.
  4. Embrace dialogic democracy.
  5. Rethink the welfare state.
  6. Confront violence.

In The Third Way, Giddens provides the framework within which the Third Way, also termed by Giddens as the radical centre, is justified. In addition, it supplies a broad range of policy proposals aimed at what Giddens calls the "progressive centre-left" in British politics.[27]

Bill Clinton espoused the ideas of the Third Way during his 1992 presidential campaign.[28]

The Third Way has been defined as such:

[S]omething 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, entrepreneurship, 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.[29][2]

The Third Way has been advocated by its proponents as a "radical-centrist" alternative to both capitalism and what it regards as the traditional forms of socialism, including Marxian and state socialism.[29] It advocates ethical socialism, reformism and gradualism that includes advocating the humanisation of capitalism, a mixed economy, political pluralism and liberal democracy.[29]

The Third Way has been often hard to holistically summarise, partly due to its flexible nature of putting ends before means, that is prioritising achieving social justice rather than focusing on the methods by which one achieves social justice. Often cited as the easiest summary of the Third Way is 'rights with responsibilities' – for example, pairing the right to education with the responsibility to put effort towards achieving good grades. On economics specifically, a great deal of the emphasis of the Third Way is placed on tax revenue, and the means by which it is generated. The Third Way argues that wealth must be enticed in a globalised economy, and that any capital flight caused by high taxes is counterproductive to generating tax revenue, for future tax revenue will be lost. The Third Way argues that growth is the best way to raise tax revenue, and that growth can be achieved through a free market economy, fiscal discipline and a healthy human capital stock.

Within social democracy[edit | edit source]

The Third Way has been advocated by proponents as competition socialism, an ideology in between traditional socialism and capitalism.[30] Anthony Giddens, a prominent proponent of the Third Way, has publicly endorsed a modernised form of socialism within the social democracy movement. However, he argues that traditional socialist ideology, specifically referring to state socialism involving economic management and planning, is flawed. Giddens asserts that as a theory of the managed economy, it barely exists any longer.[31]

In defining the Third Way, Tony Blair once wrote: "The Third Way stands for a modernised social democracy, passionate in its commitment to social justice".[32]

History[edit | edit source]

Australia[edit | edit source]

Bob Hawke, who along with his successor Paul Keating laid the groundwork to both New Democrats and New Labour as well as Third Way politics

Under the centre-left Australian Labor Party (ALP) 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, restrictions on trade union activities including on strike action and pattern bargaining, the privatisation of government-run services and enterprises such as Qantas and the Commonwealth Bank and wholesale deregulation of the banking system. Keating also proposed a Goods and Services Tax (GST) in 1985, but this was scrapped due to its unpopularity amongst both ALP and electorate. The party also desisted from other reforms such as wholesale labour market deregulation, the eventual GST, the privatisation of Telstra and welfare reform. The Hawke-Keating governments have been considered by some as laying the groundwork for the later development of both the New Democrats in the United States and New Labour in the United Kingdom.[33][34] One political commentator agreed that it led centre-left parties towards the path to neoliberalism.[35] Meanwhile, others, particularly former Labor MP and current National President Wayne Swan, acknowledge several economically conservative reforms, but at the same time disagreed and focused on the prosperity and social equality that they provided in the "26 years of uninterrupted economic growth since 1991", seeing it as fitting well within "Australian Laborism".[36][37] Swan also mentioned the fact that the policies and reforms of the Hawke–Keating governments, described as Third Way, predated the idea by a decade or more.[38]

Both Hawke and Keating made some criticism too.[39][40] In the lead-up to the 2019 federal election, Hawke made a joint statement with Keating endorsing Labor's economic plan and condemned the Liberal Party for "completely [giving] up the economic reform agenda". They stated that "[Bill] Shorten's Labor is the only party of government focused on the need to modernise the economy to deal with the major challenge of our time: human induced climate change".[41]

Various ideological beliefs were factionalised under reforms to the ALP under Gough Whitlam, resulting in what is now known as Labor Left which broadly advocates for democratic socialism, economic interventionism, and progressive social policies; and Labor Right, which tends to align more closely with social democracy and has been the main proponent of Third Way style economic policy within the party.

Former Labor Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's first speech to parliament in 1998 stated:

Competitive markets are massive and generally efficient generators of economic wealth. They must therefore have a central place in the management of the economy. But markets sometimes fail, requiring direct government intervention through instruments such as industry policy. There are also areas where the public good dictates that there should be no market at all. We are not afraid of a vision in the Labor Party, but nor are we afraid of doing the hard policy yards necessary to turn that vision into reality. Parties of the Centre Left around the world are wrestling with a similar challenge – the creation of a competitive economy while advancing the overriding imperative of a just society. Some call this the "third way". The nomenclature is unimportant. What is important is that it is a repudiation of Thatcherism and its Australian derivatives represented opposite. It is in fact a new formulation of the nation's economic and social imperatives.[42]

Brazil[edit | edit source]

Examples of Brazilian Third Way politicians include current Vice President Geraldo Alckmin and former president Fernando Henrique Cardoso. Other politicians include Simone Tebet, José Serra and Ciro Gomes, and to a lesser extent Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.[43]

France[edit | edit source]

Examples of French Third Way politicians include current President Emmanuel Macron, and to a lesser extent François Hollande, Dominique Strauss-Kahn and Manuel Valls.[44]

Germany[edit | edit source]

German chancellor Olaf Scholz (2021–2025)

Former German chancellor Gerhard Schröder (1998–2005) was a proponent of Third Way policies. Throughout his campaign for chancellor, he portrayed himself as a pragmatic new Social Democrat who would promote economic growth while strengthening Germany's generous social welfare system.[45] During Schröder's time in office, economic growth slowed to only 0.2% in 2002 and Gross Domestic Product shrank in 2003, while German unemployment was over the 10% mark.[46] Most voters soon associated Schröder with the Agenda 2010 reform program, which included cuts in the social welfare system (national health insurance, unemployment payments, pensions), lower taxes, and reformed regulations on employment and payment. He also eliminated capital gains tax on the sale of corporate stocks and thereby made the country more attractive to foreign investors.[47]

Chancellor Olaf Scholz (2021–2025) has not explicitly stated support for Third way policies, but is widely seen as part of the moderate wing of within the SPD.[48] During his tenure as minister of finance in the Fourth Merkel cabinet (2018–2021), Scholz prioritised not taking on new government debt and limiting public spending.[49]

Hungary[edit | edit source]

In Hungary, this concept emerged in the 1930s through the writings of Hungarian authors who focused on rural life and national character, seeking an alternative to the prevailing political orthodoxies of their time.

Looking beyond Hungary's domestic political landscape, the third way embodied a comprehensive rejection of both liberal capitalism, which had proven hostile to social justice rooted in Christian principles, and the despotic socialist systems that brutally trampled individual freedoms.[50][51]

The movement of Hungarian writers and intellectuals who focused on rural life and national character began in the 1930s. Its leading figures reached a fundamental understanding that the nation's problems could only be solved if politics became capable of simultaneously championing the causes of nationhood, democracy, and social justice rooted in Christian principles. The terrible tragedies of the 20th century demonstrate that when those in power neglect even one of these three core principles, the other two inevitably become corrupted.

It wasn't until much later that genuine third way political movements began to emerge. In the 2006 elections, MIÉP formed an alliance with Jobbik under the name "Third Way," creating an electoral party that proudly adopted third-way principles as reflected in its very name.[52]

Since the establishment of the Our Homeland Movement in 2018, the party has identified itself with the "Our Homeland the Third Way" logo, displaying it prominently on its 2022 election posters and on the back cover of its 100-page "Dawn Program"[53] The movement publishes a free monthly public affairs magazine titled "The Third Way."[54][55][56] In their public statements, they explicitly distance themselves from both liberal right-wing and left-wing political blocs.[57]

Italy[edit | edit source]

Matteo Renzi, the former Italian Prime Minister, a Third Way politician

The Italian Democratic Party is a plural social democratic party including several distinct ideological trends. Politicians such as former Prime Ministers Romano Prodi and Matteo Renzi are proponents of the Third Way.[58] Renzi has occasionally been compared to former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair for his political views.[59] Renzi himself has previously claimed to be a supporter of Blair's ideology of the Third Way, regarding an objective to synthesise liberal economics and left-wing social policies.[60][61]

Under Renzi's secretariat, the Democratic Party took a strong stance in favour of constitutional reform and of a new electoral law on the road toward a two-party system. It is not an easy task to find the exact political trend represented by Renzi and his supporters, who have been known as Renziani. The nature of Renzi's progressivism is a matter of debate and has been linked both to liberalism and populism.[62][63] According to Maria Teresa Meli of Corriere della Sera, Renzi "pursues a precise model, borrowed from the Labour Party and Bill Clinton's Democratic Party", comprising "a strange mix (for Italy) of liberal policy in the economic sphere and populism. This means that on one side he will attack the privileges of trade unions, especially of the CGIL, which defends only the already protected, while on the other he will sharply attack the vested powers, bankers, Confindustria and a certain type of capitalism".[64]

After the Democratic Party's defeat in the 2018 general election[65] in which the party gained 18.8% and 19.1% of the vote (down from 25.5% and 27.4% in 2013) and lost 185 deputies and 58 senators, respectively, Renzi resigned as the party's secretary.[66][67][68] In March 2019, Nicola Zingaretti, a social democrat and prominent member of the party's left-wing with solid roots in the Italian Communist Party, won the leadership election by a landslide, defeating Maurizio Martina (Renzi's former deputy secretary) and Roberto Giachetti (supported by most Renziani).[69] Zingaretti focused his campaign on a clear contrast with Renzi's policies and his victory opened the way for a new party.[70][71]

In September 2019, Renzi announced his intention to leave the Democratic Party and create a new parliamentary group.[72] He officially launched Italia Viva[73] to continue the liberal and Third Way tradition[74][75][76] within a pro-Europeanism framework,[77] especially as represented by the French President Emmanuel Macron's La République En Marche!.[78][79]

United Kingdom[edit | edit source]

In 1939, Harold Macmillan wrote a book entitled The Middle Way, advocating a compromise between capitalism and socialism which was a precursor to the contemporary notion of the Third Way.[80]

In 1979, the Labour Party professed a complete adherence to social democratic ideals and rejected the choice between a "prosperous and efficient Britain" and a "caring and compassionate Britain".[81] Coherent with this position, the main commitment of the party was the reduction of economic inequality via the introduction of a wealth tax.[81] This was rejected in the 1997 manifesto,[82] along with many changes in the 1990s like the progressive dismissal of traditional social democratic ideology and the transformation into New Labour, de-emphasising the need to tackle economic inequality and focusing instead on the expansion of opportunities for all whilst fostering social capital.[83]

Former Prime Minister Tony Blair is cited as a Third Way politician.[84][58] According to a former member of Blair's staff, Blair and the Labour Party learnt from and owes a debt to Bob Hawke's government in Australia in the 1980s on how to govern as a Third Way party.[85] Blair wrote in a Fabian pamphlet in 1994 of the existence of two prominent variants of socialism, namely one based on a Marxist–Leninist economic determinist and collectivist tradition and the other being an ethical socialism based on values of "social justice, the equal worth of each citizen, equality of opportunity, community".[86][87] Blair is a particular follower of the ideas and writings of Giddens.[58]

In 1998, Blair, then Labour Party Leader and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, described the Third Way, how it relates to social democracy and its relation with both the Old Left and the New Right, as follows:

The Third Way stands for a modernised social democracy, passionate in its commitment to social justice and the goals of the centre-left. ... But it is a third way because it moves decisively beyond an Old Left preoccupied by state control, high taxation and producer interests; and a New Right treating public investment, and often the very notions of "society" and collective endeavour, as evils to be undone.[31]

In 2002, Anthony Giddens listed problems facing the New Labour government, naming spin as the biggest failure because its damage to the party's image was difficult to rebound from. He also challenged the failure of the Millennium Dome project and Labour's inability to deal with irresponsible businesses. Giddens saw Labour's ability to marginalise the Conservative Party as a success as well its economic policy, welfare reform and certain aspects of education. Giddens criticised what he called Labour's "half-way houses", including the National Health Service and environmental and constitutional reform.[88]

In 2008, Charles Clarke, a former United Kingdom Home Secretary and the first senior Blairite to criticise Prime Minister Gordon Brown openly and in print, stated: "We should discard the techniques of 'triangulation' and 'dividing lines' with the Conservatives, which lead to the not entirely unjustified charge that we simply follow proposals from the Conservatives or the right-wing media, to minimise differences and remove lines of attack against us".[89]

Brown was succeeded by Ed Miliband's One Nation Labour in 2010 and self-described democratic socialist Jeremy Corbyn in 2015 as the Leader of the Labour Party.[90] This led some to comment that New Labour is "dead and buried".[91][92][93] Keir Starmer, now the Prime Minister, succeeded Corbyn in 2020, and has since reverted on his initial more left-wing pledges, in favour of centrist policies more associated with New Labour.

The Third Way as practised under New Labour has been criticised as being effectively a new, centre-right[94] and neoliberal party.[95] Some such as Glen O'Hara have argued that while containing "elements that we could term neoliberal", New Labour was more left-leaning than it is given credit for.[96]

United States[edit | edit source]

Template:Liberalism US

In the United States, Third Way adherents historically embraced fiscal conservatism to a greater extent than traditional economic liberals, advocated for some replacement of welfare with workfare, and sometimes held 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.[97]

As a term, it was introduced by political scientist Stephen Skowronek.[98][99][100] Third Way presidents "undermine the opposition by borrowing policies from it in an effort to seize the middle and with it to achieve political dominance". Examples of this are Richard Nixon's economic policies, which were a continuation of Lyndon B. Johnson's Great Society, as well as Clinton's welfare reform later.[101] Dwight D. Eisenhower also was a supporter of a "middle way".[102]

Anthony Giddens and President Clinton, two Third Way proponents

Along with Blair, Prodi, Gerhard Schröder and other leading Third Way adherents, Clinton organised conferences to promote the Third Way philosophy in 1997 at Chequers in England.[103][104] The Third Way think tank and the Democratic Leadership Council are adherents of Third Way politics.[105]

In 2013, American lawyer and former bank regulator William K. Black criticised then-extant Third Way movements: "Third Way is this group that pretends sometimes to be centre-left but is actually completely a creation of Wall Street – it's run by Wall Street for Wall Street with this false flag operation as if it were a center-left group. It's nothing of the sort".[17][18][19]

Other countries[edit | edit source]

Wim Kok, who led two purple coalitions as Prime Minister of the Netherlands from 1994 to 2002

Many leaders throughout the world have adopted aspects of Third Way politics. Many concepts of Third Way ideology are also often incorporated in Third Position ideology. Given the nebulous definition of the ideology, it is often difficult to identify leaders who support Third Way policies.[citation needed]

Recent developments[edit | edit source]

By the 2010s, social democratic parties that accepted Third Way politics such as triangulation and the neoliberal[33][34] shift in policies such as austerity, deregulation, free trade, privatisation and welfare reforms such as workfare experienced a drastic decline[106] as the Third Way had largely fallen out of favour in a phenomenon known as Pasokification.[107] Scholars have linked the decline of social democratic parties to the declining number of industrial workers, greater economic prosperity of voters and a tendency for these parties to shift closer to the centre-right on economic issues, alienating their former base of supporters and voters. This decline has been matched by increased support for more left-wing and populist parties as well as Left and Green social-democratic parties that rejected neoliberal and Third Way policies.[108]

Democratic socialism has emerged in opposition to Third Way social democracy[5] on the basis that democratic socialists are committed to systemic transformation of the economy from capitalism to socialism whereas social-democratic supporters of the Third Way were more concerned about challenging the New Right and win social democracy back to power. This has resulted in analysts and critics alike arguing that in effect it endorsed capitalism, even if it was due to recognising that outspoken opposition to capitalism in these circumstances was politically nonviable; and that it was anti-social democratic in practice.[20] Others saw it as theoretically fitting with modern socialism, especially liberal socialism, distinguishing it from both classical socialism and traditional democratic socialism or social democracy.[109]

Third Way economic policies began to be challenged following the Great Recession, and the rise of right-wing populism has put the ideology into question.[107] Many on the left have become more vocal in opposition to the Third Way, with the most prominent example in the United Kingdom being the rise of self-identified democratic socialist former Labour Party Leader Jeremy Corbyn as well as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders in the United States.[110][111][112]

Criticism[edit | edit source]

The Third Way has been criticised as being a vague ideology with no specific commitments:

The Third Way is no more than a crude attempt to construct a bogus coalition between the haves and the haves not: Bogus because it entices the haves by assuring them that the economy will be sound and their interests would not be threatened, while promising the have-nots a world free from poverty and injustice. Based on opportunism, it has no ideological commitment at all.[29]

After the dismantling of his country's Marxist–Leninist government, Czechoslovakia's conservative finance minister Václav Klaus declared in 1990: "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' [between central planning and the market economy] 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 in the hands of central planners".[113]

Left-wing opponents of the Third Way argue that it represents social democrats who responded to the New Right by accepting capitalism. The Third Way most commonly uses market mechanics and private ownership of the means of production and in that sense it is fundamentally capitalist.[114] In addition to opponents who have noticed this, other reviews have claimed that Third Way social democrats adjusted to the political climate since the 1980s that favoured capitalism by recognising that outspoken opposition to capitalism in these circumstances was politically nonviable and that accepting capitalism as the current status quo and seeking to administer it to challenge laissez-faire liberals was a more pressing immediate concern.[115] With the rise of neoliberalism in the late 1970s and early 1980s and the Third Way between the 1990s and 2000s, social democracy became synonymous with it.[5][116] As a result, the section of social democracy that remained committed to the gradual abolition of capitalism and opposed the Third Way merged into democratic socialism.[117][118] Many social democrats opposed to the Third Way overlap with democratic socialists in their committiment to an alternative to capitalism and a post-capitalist economy and have not only criticised the Third Way as anti-socialist[95] and neoliberal,[20] but also as anti-social-democratic in practice.[95]

Democratic and market socialists argue that the major reason for the economic shortcomings of command economies was their authoritarian nature rather than socialism itself, that it was a failure of a specific model and that therefore socialists should support democratic models rather than abandon it. Economists Pranab Bardhan and John Roemer argue that Soviet-type economies and Marxist–Leninist states failed because they did not create rules and operational criteria for the efficient operation of state enterprises in their administrative, command allocation of resources and commodities and the lack of democracy in the political systems that the Soviet-type economies were combined with. According to them, a form of competitive socialism that rejects dictatorship and authoritarian allocation in favour of democracy could work and prove superior to the market economy.[119]

Although close to New Labour and a key figure in the development of the Third Way, sociologist Anthony Giddens dissociated himself from many of the interpretations of the Third Way made in the sphere of day-to-day politics.[88] For him, it was not a succumbing to neoliberalism or the dominance of capitalist markets.[120] The point was to get beyond both market fundamentalism and top-down socialism – to make the values of the centre-left count in a globalising world. He argued that "the regulation of financial markets is the single most pressing issue in the world economy" and that "global commitment to free trade depends upon effective regulation rather than dispenses with the need for it".[121]

See also[edit | edit source]

References[edit | edit source]

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