New Labour's Pollicifs: More Than The Thiro Way

In the late 1990s, many social democratic parties of the European countries beat their rivals of the Right-wing and came to power successively. The Europe was then flourished by'New Left'political notions. Among them, New Labour of Britain, led by Tony Blair, was a typical example. The party struck out a third way approach of politics. The third way approach was proclaimed to be of'New Left', differing either from the'Old Left'or the'New Right'. No matter the nature of it eventually landed on which political camp, the third way was a political notion which revived the political idealism in the modern world and a new attempt of democratic socialism. Accordingly, the third way politics received world-wide attention in field of political science and ignited heated discussion about it. Yet the notion has also attracted much criticism. Some said it was an empty concept without any real content and it was by no means a new idea. Hence it is important to investigate the nature of this political notion so that we can have a clear picture about it as what it is.In a way New Labour's third way policy was a reflection of the ideological, political and economic environment in which New Labour had found it. Though the party's policy saw a great deal of'Thatcherite'elements, New Labour committed itself to maintaining the basic social justice and social equality. The party, in addition, being aware of the challenges posed by the new century, also made some policy innovations (especially in the field of education) to try to better prepare Britain for the new millennium. In fact, the third way advocated by New Labour mainly exerted three features: its commitment to maintain the basic social equality, inheritance from Thatcherism in many areas and policy innovation in the field of education aimed at turning Britain into an investor's state. Among these three characteristics, inheritance from Thatcherism was the major part. Therefore, it is in this sense that the third way was actually leaning to the New Right rather than centre or centre-left, inheriting much of the Thatcherite ideas and ideology.