Atlas / Organisations / Third Way
Third Way
New Labour, New Democrats · 1992–2010 · UK, US, Germany · Social Democratic · Doctrine / school · coding confidence high
Each axis runs from −10 to +10, with zero a genuine mixed or balanced position rather than an absence of opinion. A score describes a stated position and a governing record; it is not a judgement of merit. What each score means →
Core principles
Accept the market settlement, invest the proceeds in public services, and compete for the centre ground.
Economic model
Independent central bank, light-touch financial regulation, private finance for public projects, tax credits, minimum wage.
Organisation of powers
Parliamentary democracy with strong executive centralisation and heavy reliance on advisers and targets.
Reading note
Sits to the economic right of the postwar conservative parties in the same countries — a useful check on the assumption that parties keep their positions.
Check a claim about Third Way. The interactive atlas measures the distance between any two organisations across all six axes and shows which ones carry the disagreement.
Open in the atlasThe evidence for every score
All six cells are sourced. A rationale explains what the score is measuring and each artefact is something a third party can check without taking anyone's word for it.
EC · Economic organisation · scored +03
Coded +3: to the economic right of the postwar conservative parties in the same countries.
- Documented act or statuteBank of England independence in 1997, PFI for public investment, and no renationalisation.
CU · Social and cultural order · scored −04
Coded −4: socially liberal reform without confronting the electorate on it.
- Documented act or statuteCivil partnerships, the Human Rights Act and repeal of Section 28 all passed in this period.
AU · Organisation of power · scored −03
Coded −3: constitutional in method and heavily reliant on advisers and targets.
- Documented act or statuteThe Human Rights Act 1998 and Bank of England independence were both constitutional constraints adopted voluntarily.
SC · Scale of decision · scored +04
Coded +4: strong executive centralisation with devolution as the exception.
- Documented act or statuteThe UK version created devolved parliaments and simultaneously concentrated Whitehall control through targets and units.
ID · Rule of membership · scored −04
Coded −4: civic and cosmopolitan, with rising restriction on asylum.
- Documented act or statuteThe UK opened labour migration from the 2004 accession states without transitional controls.
CH · Method and tempo · scored −08
Coded −8: incrementalism raised to a governing philosophy.
- Programme textGiddens' The Third Way (1998) frames the project as modernising social democracy within the market settlement.
Where it came from, and what came after
- is a continuation ofUK Labour Party
The same party after Clause IV was rewritten in 1995.
Nearest organisations by measured distance
Straight-line separation across all six axes, out of a maximum of 49.0. Proximity means similarity of stated position, not endorsement and not resemblance in outcome.
- Australian Labor Party5.4
- Social Liberalism5.6
- Japanese Liberal Opposition5.6
- Liberal Party of Canada5.7
- Semilla5.7
- UK Labour Party6.2
Countries
Britain · Germany · United States
Arguments this entry is used in
Claims in circulation that turn on where this organisation sits. Each gives the strongest case for it, the strongest case against, and the measurement.
Cite this page
Scores are revised on evidence, so a citation should carry the version it refers to. Version 4.3.1 is current; the revision log records every change.
Free to quote and reproduce with attribution. This is a synthesis rather than a peer-reviewed dataset — where an authoritative figure is needed, cite the Chapel Hill Expert Survey, the Manifesto Project or V-Dem.