Posted on 07/10/2003 2:31:05 PM PDT by bruinbirdman
Six years ago, when the first progressive governance summit near London brought together centre-left leaders from around the world, the political make-up of the US and Europe was very different from today. Bill Clinton was in the White House - and was one of the most enthusiastic advocates of such encounters. Eleven out of the 15 European Union countries were governed by left-of-centre parties or coalitions. The Third Way - modernised social democracy - seemed triumphant almost everywhere. Now most of this appears to have changed. The Republicans rule the roost in the US, while the EU is dominated by the right. Is the Third Way a dead duck?
Absolutely not, is my answer. Centre-left parties may have lost ground in the EU but they have notched up successes elsewhere. Governments in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland, as well as Sweden, Germany and Britain, are now following revisionist programmes heavily influenced by Third Way ideas and policies. The same applies to the new government in Brazil. President Luis Inácio Lula da Silva has abandoned the more traditional leftist rhetoric of his earlier days in favour of a position that closely resembles the modernising social democratic parties in Europe.
Critics say the Third Way is empty of content - an invention of spin-doctors. But exactly the opposite is true. Third Way thinking is driven by policy innovation and the need to react to social change. Its outlines are as relevant as ever: the restructuring of the state and government to make them more democratic and accountable; a shake-up in welfare systems to bring them more into line with the main risks people face today; emphasis on job creation coupled with labour market reform; a commitment to fiscal discipline; investment in public services but only where linked to reform; investment in human capital as crucial to success in the knowledge economy; the balancing of rights and responsibilities of citizens; and a multilateralist approach to globalisation and international relations.
The right's recent electoral successes were not born from a new political ideology that can rival Third Way thinking. Compassionate conservatism may have helped George W. Bush to scrape into power but it is hardly a developed political philosophy. In Europe, the right has been propelled back to government on a wave of far-right populism. The universal themes of this "populist revolt" are anxieties about immigration, multiculturalism and crime. It is anti-establishment, reflecting disquiet about orthodox democratic mechanisms, and it taps into worries about loss of national identity in the EU and more generally about the impact of globalisation. The centre right has normalised some of these populist themes and incorporated them within its own perspectives. Its successes have been largely opportunistic.
The centre left remains in a strong position. But no one should doubt that there is a good deal of rethinking to do. Progressives must respond not only to the issues brought into focus by the populist right but also to wider global changes. The world has changed enormously since the early 1990s. At that time, the global environment seemed relatively benign, with the end of the cold war and the prospect of steady long-term economic growth. After September 11 2001, the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, mass protests against globalisation, the bursting of the stock market bubble and the subsequent corporate scandals, and with economic growth stuttering almost everywhere, things look more difficult.
When formulating our response to these developments we must look at the experiences of centre-left governments and parties across Europe, North America and elsewhere. We need, for example, a more robust defence of the public sphere, of public goods and interests, than current progressive thought has achieved. It is, I believe, possible to revive trust in government and we should work to secure that. New models of corporate governance must be high on the agenda. So too must be radical ways of tackling inequalities, still on the increase all over the world.
Some critics dismiss such events as a distraction from "real politics" - from dealing with the daily concerns of the electorate and the dilemmas of government. But our discussions will have a practical impact and may shape left-of-centre thinking and practice for years to come.
The writer is director of the London School of Economics. He is chairman of the policy groups for the Progressive Governance summit
The Third Way is nothing more than communism minus Marxist economic theory or, more correctly, the new dialectic of using capitalism to destroy capitalism.
They're not very good at it.
2 posted on 3/6/02 7:30 AM Pacific by grammymoon:
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This writer has never been to Poland or any of the countries he thinks are going Left.... The Left is brankrupted thanks to Bush!
http://www.thirdway.org/files/MF2001/intro.html
yitbos
This concept is meaningless to Americans. Right-wrong, left-right, good-sucks, that's how we perceive reality. None of this 'a little this, a little that.' Make a clean definition, all or nothing. The real deal, or no deal.
France and Germany don't really have Third Way governments, they're still a bunch of socialists.
ALL having to do with America.
IOW, as the US goes, so goes the world.
Their only chance of succeeding is if WE go left.
It's our job to make that impossible.
Co-president Hilla was all that.
man no cross road, ok.
man cross road, ok.
man go middle road, get hit by car.
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