On The Third Way And British Labour Party’s Governing Practice

The Third Way, not attracting public attention when it first emerged, actually hada long history in political arena. It came back into public view again during Clinton’sgeneral election. However, the far-reaching application of the Third Way was inBritain. Under the chief theorist Giddens’ exposition, the British version of Third Waycame out which marked its revitalization in politics. Overall, the Third Way wasre-proposed in the context of globalization, on the basis of social democracy andneo-liberalism. It went beyond left and right, and conformed to the development of thetimes. Also, it promoted British economic recovery after the Thatcher government.Under the guidance of the Third Way, the Blair government formulated a series ofpolitical, economic as well as foreign policies.Based on the researches of the Third Way at home and abroad, this thesis aims atstudying its background, the main content and its application. It employs historicalanalysis and synthesis analysis, combined with the Labour Party’s governing practice,analyzing the significance of the Third Way on guiding the Labour Party. It uncoversthe nature of the Third Way, which eases the crisis of capitalism to a certain extent,but cannot eradicate ingrained social contradiction. It was in essence theself-improvement inside capitalist society. Meanwhile, it concludes that the Third Wayis meaningful and has pragmatic feature in philosophical root. The purpose of thisthesis lies in that the Third Way theory provides each ruling party a reference to theirtheoretical construction and reforms.