Third Way

As a term, the third way has been used to explain a variety of political courses and ideologies in the last few centuries.{{sfn|Romano|2006|p=2}} 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.{{cite book |last=Röpke |first=Wilhelm |date=1951 |title=Die Lehre von der Wirtschaft, Erlenbach-Zürich |language=de |trans-title=The teaching of the economy, Erlenbach-Zürich |pages=56–59}}

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.{{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}}

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:{{cite book |last1=Bryant |first1=Christopher G. A. |last2=Jary |first2=David |chapter=Anthony Giddens |chapter-url=http://www.blackwellreference.com/public/tocnode?id=g9781405105958_chunk_g978140510595813 |editor-last=Ritzer |editor-first=George |editor-link=George Ritzer |title=The Blackwell Companion to Major Contemporary Social Theorists |publisher=Blackwell |location=Malden, Massachusetts Oxford |year=2003 |isbn=9781405105958 |title-link=The Blackwell Companion to Major Contemporary Social Theorists |pages=247–273 |doi=10.1002/9780470999912.ch11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130421050654/http://www.blackwellreference.com/public/tocnode?id=g9781405105958_chunk_g978140510595813 |archive-date=21 April 2013}}

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.{{sfn|Giddens|1998|pp=44–46}}

Bill Clinton espoused the ideas of the Third Way during his 1992 presidential campaign.{{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}}

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.{{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 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, 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 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 globalized 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.

The Third Way has been advocated by proponents as competition socialism, an ideology in between traditional socialism and capitalism.{{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}} Anthony Giddens, a prominent proponent of the Third Way, has publicly endorsed a modernized 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".{{cite book |last=Lowe |first=Rodney |date=1993 |title=The Welfare State in Britain Since 1945 |publisher=Palgrave |isbn=978-1403911933}}

File:Hawke Bob BANNER.jpg, 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.{{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}}{{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}} One political commentator agreed that it led centre-left parties towards the path to neoliberalism.{{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}} 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".{{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 |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}}{{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}} 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.{{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.}}

Both Hawke and Keating made some criticism too.{{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}}{{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}} 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".{{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}}

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 interventionist economic policy, more authoritative top-down controls and some socially progressive ideals; and Labor Right, the faction that is pro-business, more economically liberal and in some cases, more socially conservative.

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.{{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}}

While critical of economists such as Friedrich Hayek,{{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}}{{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}} Rudd described himself as "basically a conservative when it comes to questions of public financial management", pointing to his slashing of public service jobs as a Queensland governmental advisor.{{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}}{{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}} 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.

{{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 to a lesser extent Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Ciro Gomes.{{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}}

{{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.{{harvnb|Yuk|2007}}; {{harvnb|Lohrenz|2014}}; {{harvnb|Alcaro|Le Corre|2014}}; {{harvnb|Milner|2017}}

File:Olaf Scholz 2024.jpg Olaf Scholz (2021–2025)]]

Former German chancellor Gerhard Schroder (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.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. 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.[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. 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.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.

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.{{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}} During his tenure as minister of finance in the Fourth Merkel cabinet (2018–2021), Scholz prioritized not taking on new government debt and limiting public spending.{{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}}

{{see also|Craxism}}

{{Expand section|with=information about late PSI and Craxi|date=January 2023}}

File:Matteo Renzi 2015.jpeg, 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.{{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}} Renzi has occasionally been compared to former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair for his political views.{{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}} 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.{{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}}{{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}}

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.{{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}}{{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}} 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".{{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}}

After the Democratic Party's defeat in the 2018 general election{{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}} 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.{{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}}{{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}}{{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}} 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).{{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}} Zingaretti focused his campaign on a clear contrast with Renzi's policies and his victory opened the way for a new party.{{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}}{{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}}

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

{{see also|New Labour}}

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.{{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}}

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".{{cite web |url=http://www.labour-party.org.uk/manifestos/1979/1979-labour-manifesto.shtml |title=1979 Labour Party Manifesto |publisher=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}} Coherent with this position, the main commitment of the party was the reduction of economic inequality via the introduction of a wealth tax. This was rejected in the 1997 manifesto,{{cite web |url=http://www.labour-party.org.uk/manifestos/1997/1997-labour-manifesto.shtml |title=1997 Labour Party Manifesto |publisher=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}} 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.{{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 }}

Former Prime Minister Tony Blair is cited as a Third Way politician.{{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}} 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.{{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}} 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".{{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}}{{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 }} Blair is a particular follower of the ideas and writings of Giddens.

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:

{{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}}}}

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.{{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}}

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' 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".{{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}}

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.{{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}} This led some to comment that New Labour is "dead and buried".{{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}}{{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}}{{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}} 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{{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}} and neoliberal party. 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.{{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}}

{{see also|New Democrats (United States)|Rockefeller Republican|Third Way (United States)}}

File:Bill Clinton with Professor Anthony Giddens (Joint Chair), 2001.jpg and President Clinton, two Third Way proponents]]

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.{{cite book |title=The Survivor: Bill Clinton in the White House |first=John F. |last=Harris |publisher=Random House |date=2005}}

As a term, it was introduced by political scientist Stephen Skowronek.{{cite book |last=Skowronek |first=Stephen |date=1993 |title=The Politics Presidents Make |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=0-674-68937-2}}{{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}}{{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}} 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.{{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}} Dwight D. Eisenhower also was a supporter of a "middle way".{{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}}

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.{{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}}{{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}} The Third Way think tank and the Democratic Leadership Council are adherents of Third Way politics.{{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}}

In 2013, American lawyer and former bank regulator William K. Black criticized 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".

File:Wim Kok 1994.jpg, 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|date=May 2025}}

{{Capitalism sidebar}}

By the 2010s, social democratic parties that accepted Third Way politics such as triangulation and the neoliberal shift in policies such as austerity, deregulation, free trade, privatisation and welfare reforms such as workfare experienced a drastic decline{{harvnb|Guinan|2013|pp=44–60}}; {{harvnb|Karnitschnig|2018}}; {{harvnb|Buck|2018}}; {{harvnb|Lawson|2018}} as the Third Way had largely fallen out of favour in a phenomenon known as Pasokification.{{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}} 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.{{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}}

Democratic socialism has emerged in opposition to Third Way social democracy 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. 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.{{cite book |last=Adams |first=Ian |date=1999 |title=Ideology and Politics in Britain Today |chapter=Social democracy to New Labour |publisher=Manchester University Press |page=127 |isbn=978-0-719-05056-5}}

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. 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.{{cite news |last=Huges |first=Laura |date=24 February 2016 |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/tony-blair/12171297/Tony-Blair-admits-he-cant-understand-the-popularity-of-Jeremy-Corbyn-and-Bernie-Sanders.html |title=Tony Blair admits he can't understand the popularity of Jeremy Corbyn and Bernie Sanders |work=The Daily Telegraph |access-date=14 May 2019 |quote=In a joint Guardian and Financial Times interview, Mr Blair said he believed some of Mr Sanders' and Mr Corbyn's success was due to the "loss of faith in that strong, centrist progressive position", which defined his own career. He said: "One of the strangest things about politics at the moment – and I really mean it when I say I'm not sure I fully understand politics right now, which is an odd thing to say, having spent my life in it – is when you put the question of electability as a factor in your decision to nominate a leader, it's how small the numbers are that this is the decisive factor. That sounds curious to me." |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160427123608/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/tony-blair/12171297/Tony-Blair-admits-he-cant-understand-the-popularity-of-Jeremy-Corbyn-and-Bernie-Sanders.html |archive-date=27 April 2016}}{{cite news |last=Tarnoff |first=Ben |date=12 July 2017 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2017/jul/12/social-media-socialism-jeremy-corbyn-bernie-sanders |title=How social media saved socialism |work=The Guardian |access-date=14 May 2019 |quote=Socialism is stubborn. After decades of dormancy verging on death, it is rising again in the west. In the UK, Jeremy Corbyn just led the Labour party to its largest increase in vote share since 1945 on the strength of its most radical manifesto in decades. In France, the leftist Jean-Luc Melenchon recently came within two percentage points of breaking into the second round of the presidential election. And in the US, the country's most famous socialist – Bernie Sanders – is now its most popular politician. ... For the resurgent left, an essential spark is social media. In fact, it's one of the most crucial and least understood catalysts of contemporary socialism. Since the networked uprisings of 2011 – the year of the Arab spring, Occupy Wall Street and the Spanish indignados – we've seen how social media can rapidly bring masses of people into the streets. But social media isn't just a tool for mobilizing people. It's also a tool for politicizing them. |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170713021900/https://www.theguardian.com/media/2017/jul/12/social-media-socialism-jeremy-corbyn-bernie-sanders |archive-date=13 July 2017}}{{cite news |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/democratic-socialism-hits-heartland-ocasio-cortez-sanders-campaign-deep-red-n893076 |title=Democratic socialism hits the heartland: Ocasio-Cortez, Sanders to campaign in deep-red Kansas |work=NBC News |date=20 July 2018 |access-date=14 May 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180720230913/https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/democratic-socialism-hits-heartland-ocasio-cortez-sanders-campaign-deep-red-n893076 |archive-date=20 July 2018}}

The Third Way has been criticized 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.{{sfn|Arora|2010|pp=9, 22}}

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".{{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}}

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.{{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.{{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.{{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.}}{{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.}} 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{{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}} and neoliberal, but also as anti-social-democratic in practice.

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 favor of democracy could work and prove superior to the market economy.{{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}}

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. For him, it was not a succumbing to neoliberalism or the dominance of capitalist 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 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".{{sfn|Giddens|1998|pp=148–149}}

{{Portal|Liberalism|Politics|Socialism}}

{{cols|colwidth=16em}}

• Big Society
• Communitarianism
• Golden mean (philosophy)
• Lulism
• Moderate
• Neoliberalism
• New Labour
• Pasokification
• Social corporatism
• Social conservatism
• Syncretic politics
• Third force (1996 Russian presidential election)
• Third Position
• Triangulation (politics)
• Tripartism
• Varieties of Capitalism

{{colend}}

{{reflist|30em}}

{{refbegin|30em|indent=y}}

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• {{cite book |last1=Corfe |first1=Robert |date=2010 |title=The Future of Politics: With the Demise of the Left/Right Confrontational System |location=Bury St Edmunds, England |publisher=Arena Books |isbn=978-1-906791-46-9}}
• {{cite book |last1=Demmers |first1=J. |last2=Fernández Jilberto |first2=A. E. |last3=Hogenboom |first3=B. |date=2004 |title=Good Governance in the Era of Global Neoliberalism: Conflict and depolitisation in Latin America, Eastern Europe, Asia and Africa |series=Routledge studies in the modern world economy |volume=47 |publisher=Routledge |url=https://pure.uva.nl/ws/files/19452073/Jolle_Demmers_Alex_E._Fernndez_Jilberto_Barba.pdf |via=University of Amsterdam |access-date=24 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200709142416/https://pure.uva.nl/ws/files/19452073/Jolle_Demmers_Alex_E._Fernndez_Jilberto_Barba.pdf |archive-date=9 July 2020}}
• {{cite news |last=Garibaldo |first=Belisario Rodríguez |url=https://tupolitica.com/opinion-panama/%C2%BFque-es-la-izquierda.html/ |title=¿Qué es La Izquierda? |language=es |trans-title=What is The Left? |newspaper=TuPolitica |date=30 November 2008 |access-date=23 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230123230747/https://tupolitica.com/opinion-panama/%C2%BFque-es-la-izquierda.html/ |archive-date=23 January 2023}}
• {{cite book |last=Giddens |first=Anthony |author-link=Anthony Giddens |title=The Third Way: The Renewal of Social Democracy |publisher=Polity Press |year=1998 |isbn=978-0745622675}}
• {{cite book |last=Giddens |first=Anthony |author-link=Anthony Giddens |title=The Third Way and its Critics |publisher=Polity Press |year=2000 |isbn=978-0745624501}}
• {{cite journal |last=Guinan |first=Joe |year=2013 |jstor=10.5325/goodsociety.22.1.0044 |doi=10.5325/goodsociety.22.1.0044 |title=Returns to Capital |journal=The Good Society |volume=22 |issue=1 |pages=44–60}}
• {{cite book |last1=Hinnfors |first1=Jonas |author1-link=:sv:Jonas Hinnfors |date=2006 |title=Reinterpreting Social Democracy: A History of Stability in the British Labour Party and Swedish Social Democratic Party |series=Critical Labour Movement Studies |publisher=Manchester University Press |isbn=978-0-7190-7362-5}}
• {{cite news |last=Karnitschnig |first=Matthew |date=2 March 2018 |url=https://www.politico.eu/article/matteo-renzi-martin-schulz-italy-germany-who-killed-european-social-democracy/ |title=Who killed European social democracy? |work=Politico |access-date=29 November 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190806044223/https://www.politico.eu/article/matteo-renzi-martin-schulz-italy-germany-who-killed-european-social-democracy/ |archive-date=6 August 2019}}
• {{cite news |ref={{harvid|La Nación, 2016}} |title=Oscar Arias y la crisis del reformismo |language=es |trans-title=Oscar Arias and the crisis of reformism |url=https://www.nacion.com/opinion/foros/oscar-arias-y-la-crisis-del-reformismo/T4S3O77ATZCPHMWFULIAMZYGDY/story |access-date=20 March 2022 |agency=La Nación |date=14 February 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220320102005/https://www.nacion.com/opinion/foros/oscar-arias-y-la-crisis-del-reformismo/T4S3O77ATZCPHMWFULIAMZYGDY/story/ |archive-date=20 March 2022}}
• {{cite book |last1=Lafontaine |first1=Oskar |author1-link=Oskar Lafontaine |date=2009 |title=Left Parties Everywhere? |series=Socialist Renewal |location=Nottingham, England |publisher=Spokesman Books |isbn=978-0-85124-764-9}}
• {{cite news |last=Lawson |first=Neal |date=20 December 2018 |url=https://www.socialeurope.eu/averting-the-death-of-social-democracy |title=Averting the death of social democracy |work=Social Europe |access-date=29 November 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200305173054/https://www.socialeurope.eu/averting-the-death-of-social-democracy |archive-date=5 March 2020}}
• {{cite book |last1=Lewis |first1=Jane |author1-link=Jane Lewis (academic) |last2=Surender |first2=Rebecca |date=2004 |title=Welfare State Change: Towards a Third Way? |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780191601941 |doi=10.1093/0199266727.001.0001}}
• {{cite book |last=Lioy |first=Alberto |date=September 2020 |url=https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/359918769.pdf |page=160 |title=Electoral Revolutions: A comparative study of rapid changes in voter turnout |access-date=2 January 2022}}
• {{cite news |last=Lohrenz |first=Carolin |date=15 January 2014 |title=Hollande chooses 'third way' on economy |url=http://www.dw.com/en/hollande-chooses-third-way-on-economy/a-17361909 |access-date=7 November 2016 |work=Deutsche Welle |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161108195825/http://www.dw.com/en/hollande-chooses-third-way-on-economy/a-17361909 |archive-date=8 November 2016}}
• {{cite news |last=Long |first=Gideon |date=29 December 2017 |title=Lenín Moreno unpicks Ecuador's leftwing legacy |url=https://www.ft.com/content/aa2c331a-e265-11e7-97e2-916d4fbac0da |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221210/https://www.ft.com/content/aa2c331a-e265-11e7-97e2-916d4fbac0da |archive-date=10 December 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |access-date=9 October 2019 |work=The Financial Times}}
• {{cite journal |last1=Loxbo |first1=Karl |last2=Hinnfors |first2=Jonas |last3=Hagevi |first3=Magnus |last4=Blombäck |first4=Sofie |last5=Demker |first5=Marie |date=9 July 2019 |title=The decline of Western European social democracy: Exploring the transformed link between welfare state generosity and the electoral strength of social democratic parties, 1975–2014 |journal=Party Politics |volume=27 |issue=3 |pages=430–441 |doi=10.1177/1354068819861339 |s2cid=199148173 |issn=1354-0688}}
• {{cite book |last=Macmillan |first=Harold |author-link=Harold Macmillan |title=The Middle Way; A Study of the Problem of Economic and Social Progress in A Free and Democratic Society |title-link=The Middle Way (book) |publisher=Macmillan Company |year=1939 |isbn=978-0715813331}}
• {{cite web |last=Milner |first=Susan |date=6 February 2017 |title=Emmanuel Macron and the building of a new liberal-centrist movement |url=http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/europpblog/2017/02/06/emmanuel-macron-liberal-centrist-movement/ |access-date=23 May 2017 |publisher=London School of Economics |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170520051449/https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/europpblog/2017/02/06/emmanuel-macron-liberal-centrist-movement/ |archive-date=20 May 2017}}
• {{cite news |last=Murillo |first=Álvaro |date=5 July 2017 |url=https://semanariouniversidad.com/bloque1/quien-podra-defender-al-pac/ |title=¿Quién podrá defender al PAC? |language=es |trans-title=Who will be able to defend the PAC? |newspaper=Semanario Universidad |access-date=2 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200919082438/https://semanariouniversidad.com/bloque1/quien-podra-defender-al-pac/ |archive-date=19 September 2020}}
• {{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 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}}

{{refend}}

• Labour Party (1979). [http://www.politicsresources.net/area/uk/man/lab79.htm The Labour Way is the Better Way] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130730190133/http://www.politicsresources.net/area/uk/man/lab79.htm |date=30 July 2013 }}.
• Labour Party (1997). [https://web.archive.org/web/20101104122057/http://www.labour-party.org.uk/manifestos/1979/1979-labour-manifesto.shtml Labour's New Deal for a Lost Generation Labour Party].

{{Wiktionary}}

• [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 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/}}

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