The Third Way: The Renewal of Social Democracy Book

The "third way", in Britain, has come to be associated with the politics of Tony Blair and New Labour. And Anthony Giddens, the director of the London School of Economics and Political Science, is frequently referred to as Tony Blair's guru as he has made a strong impact on the evolution of New Labour. In The Third Way, he makes a contribution to the debate now going on in many countries about the future of social democratic politics. The reasons for the debate are obvious enough--the dissolution of the "welfare consensus" that dominated in the industrial countries up to the late 1970s; the final discrediting of Marxism, and the very profound social, economic and technological changes that helped bring these about. What should be done in response, and whether social democracy can survive at all as a distinctive political philosophy, are much less obvious. This slim book has been described by Ian Hargreaves, former editor of the New Statesman and The Independent, as being a "landmark" in laying the intellectual foundations of the centre-left position.Read More