Third Way
The Third Way is a centre-left project that accepts markets, globalisation and fiscal discipline, while using an active state to invest in education, skills and opportunity. It seeks to move beyond the old divide between state socialism and laissez-faire.
- Globalisation and free trade are realities to be managed, not resisted.
- Government should equip people to compete, through education and training, rather than only redistribute.
- Rights come with responsibilities, including in welfare.
The sociologist Anthony Giddens set out the idea in The Third Way (1998). It was the governing approach of Bill Clinton's New Democrats, Tony Blair's New Labour and Gerhard Schröder's "Neue Mitte" in the 1990s and early 2000s.
Critics on the left argue that it accepted rising inequality and deregulated finance, contributing to the 2008 crisis. Critics on the right regard it as a rebranding of higher spending.
Countries and historical regimes whose 12-axis profile is closer to Third Way than to any other ideology in the test.
Third Way is also the second-closest ideology for: Chile, Taiwan.
Method: each ideology is placed at a typical position on the 12 axes, scored from 0 to 100 toward the first pole. Ranks compare it with the other 45 ideologies; matches are 100 minus the average distance across all axes. The positions are our own calibration, not taken from any third-party source.