Third Way
We live in a world of dramatic change and the old ideologies that have dominated the last century do not provide the answers". (Tony Blair). Do you think Blair's "Third Way" provides the answer? In this essay I intend to examine the underlying concepts of the Third Way and the solutions it has to offer on some of the major issues confronting contemporary British and politics. I shall in no way be able to do justice in this short essay by discussing the Third Way in any great detail as the Third Way itself has proven to be a very ambiguous subject. I am proposing to structure this essay in a way so that I shall be able to cover three to four central ideological concepts of Blair's Third Way. So what is the Third Way. It's critic's claim that it's eyewash, void of any real substance. They hold it to be a collaboration of policies, which are with out any real content. They define the Third Way as being undefined, an elusive set of doctrines which have been taken from existing ideologies on order to form an incoherent set of policies. They argue that the underlying concept of the Third Way is in no way unique, it's remnants can be found littered throughout the twentieth century where a compromise or a third way has a always been sough
t to the problems of that particular time. Alan Ryan offers the following interpretation: The Third Way is a distinct and viable political position, but it isn't an innovation. It first emerged in British Politics about a century ago at which point it was known as new Liberalism. (1) Keeping in mind that before the advent of the Third Way, the Labour government before its ascent to power was portrayed has having a non-ideological basis for their policies. Steven Wood (a fellow in politics at Magdalene College, Oxford) says that the "Third Way represents a product differentiation with out really knowing what the product is" (2) Proponents of the Third Way argue that class is no longer the driving force in politics and that the old divisions of left/right are meaningless. They base their argument on the premise that in a world which is rapidly in a constant state of flux in terms of technology and globalisation. A new innovative and powerful form of politics is vital. They stress that there are no borders that can not be transgressed in order to find the solutions deemed necessary for the problems facing the contemporary period. The politics of left and right should be interchangeable and no barriers to entry must exist between left and right if politics is to be prosperous. The Third Way was first promulgated by new labour in 1998 during a series of lectures given by Tony Blair and senior Labour colleagues. Tony Blair argued that: Third Way is a position of "radical centre" that is beyond old definition of left and right, meaning that it is a method of selecting the best policies of traditional left and right. (3) In more apparent terms it can be defined as a partnership between the public and private sectors. The emergence of Blair's Third Way was the acceptance of economic globalisation as a hard fact with all its consequences for economic growth in a highly competitive world market and the type of jobs which it is going to make available. Globalisation, however, is a highly ambiguous term. It is multidimensional in its scope and ambivalent in its meaning. There is much evidence to support the fact that communication; effects of ecological destruction, diseases, cultural encounters and migration to a certain extent are transgressing political frontiers. The nation states are more than ever playing an increasingly dominant role on the world stage. Financial markets have become thoroughly globalised. There yet remains to be seen a single world-wide marketplace in which all economic unities compete with each other. This is further proof that this is not synonymous to comprehensive economic globalisation. Tony Blair states in his explanation of the Third Way: Just as economic and social change were critical to sweeping the right to power, so they were critical to it's undoing. The challenge for the Third Way is to engage fully with the implications of the change. The changes he identifies concern global markets and culture, technological advance and information industries. (4) The Third Way seeks to promote global developments at both the local and national level. Proponents of the Third Way argue that the advancement of global markets and technologies, enhance the ideals of community, locally, nationally, an
Some common words found in the essay are:
Blair's Third, Proponents Third, Tony Blair, European Union, Third It's, Alan Ryan, , Third Labour, British Politics, Oxford Third, blair's third, tony blair, proponents third argue, global economy, proponents third, economic growth, welfare structures, economic globalisation, labour market, individual's sense, modern societies,
Approximate Word count = 2177
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page double spaced)
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