The Third Way: New Democrats, New Labour and a New Center

Historian Tony Judt once said in a New York Times article in 1998 that “Each age has its Cliché. Ours in the third way”.  The 1990s were always at least in popular memory considered the nonpolitical decade. The Soviet Union dissolved effectively, bringing the end to the cold war. Fukuyama wrote that “not just ... the passing of a particular period of post-war history, but the end of history as such: That is, the end-point of mankinds ideological evolution and the universalization of Western liberal democracy as the final form of human government”.  This was the birth of new world order as British Prime Minister Tony Blair would announce “Not old Left or new right but a new center and center-left governing philosophy for the future”.  The 1990s would see Tony Blair and Bill Clinton along with other euro leaders would attend a series of international retreats. In October 1998, Anthony Giddens published his The Third Way.  A 150 page manifesto which was a call for a “renewal of Social Democracy” not right or left but forward. It would usher in a new economy, new labor, new democrats, nu metal, a new middle. But what was this new vision. The third way drew skeptical appraisals from both the right and left. Who argued that it was a vague and ambiguous statement. The Economist derisively stated in 1998, “Trying to pin down an exact meaning is like wrestling an inflatable man. If you get a grip on one limb, all the hot air rushes to another.” Jeff Faux of the Economic Policy Institute likewise noted that while “Clinton and Blair are two of the most articulate politicians of the age…their definitions of the third way leave the observer without a clue as to what it means.”What is the third way? And how this new centrism ideology of the 90s change politics 30 years on. Welcome to a conversation before the worlds ends and today we will be looking at the Third Way. Background Music by  Karl Casey @ White Bat AudioOutro Music provided by Free Music TunesTrack: Were Wolves - Break Stuff (Limp Bizkit Cover)Link: https://youtu.be/ng7dSG7sCYINotes:- How the Third Way Made Neoliberal Politics Seem Inevitable-https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/third-way-dlc-bill-clinton-tony-blair-1990s-politics/How the Democrats Traded the New Deal for Neoliberalism-https://jacobin.com/2022/07/democratic-party-neoliberalism-dlc-clintonA brief history of the third way-https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2003/feb/10/labour.uk1How the Democrats Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Free Market-https://jacobin.com/2022/07/new-democrats-blue-centrist-clintonism-welfare-reformLeft Behind: The Democrats Failed Attempt to Solve Inequality-https://a.co/d/5oxMGlpInsta: @convo_btweTwitter: convo_btweFacebook: A Conversation Before the World Ends Tiktok: convo_btwe