The Study Of The Third Way In The West

The Third Way is a thought that has influenced in society and politics in the west.Facing the great changes of political and economic situation, it explores the theory ofcapitalism to maintain capitalist system. It’s beyond left and right to find a balance. Itlearns reasonable elements from traditional social democracy and neo-liberalism. Itgets rid of the theory that only emphasizes state controlling everything and totallydependents on the free market to solve all the problems. Equality, justice, freedom,responsibility and democracy are its basic values. The Third Way tries to find amethod which adapts to social and economic changes in the new century.Since the1970s, the world has faced great changes. The Soviet Uniondisintegrated and Eastern Europe broke up. In the context of globalization, thecountries confronted many shocks and challenges. Intellectual middle class graduallyrose. The social structure changed. Social democracy was in trouble. Westerncapitalist theorists and thinkers have responded to these realities. Fundamentallyspeaking, the Third Way is a series of adjustments and explorations to maintaincapitalist rule.In this paper, the writer analyses the historical developments and defects of theThird Way. Bernstein, the Second International leader, through a lot of the actualresearches and data, derived a Third Way. Anthony Giddens, London School ofEconomics Dean, demonstrated his theory of the Third Way. It contained the revivalof civil society, the welfare state transformation and cosmopolitanism nationalism. Aseries of reform measures and policies that Tony Blair and Bill Clinton implementedwere the representative practices of the Third Way.Finally, standing on the basis of Marxism’s historical materialism, the writer hasa critical reflection on the substance and defects of the Third Way. Marxist theory andthe Third Way are both based on the actual realities. However, the Third Way theorists have only seen the current global crisis, the plight of the welfare state and the socialdemocratic setbacks. They urgently sought solutions and did not analyze the realreasons behind these changes. It was a tendency of utilitarianism and pragmatism.Their intentions were helping capitalism get over the difficulties, rather than solvingthe problems of people under capitalism fundamentally. The Third Way wanted tomaintain capitalism, and Marxism tried to change the alienation situation of humanbeings. One is the perspective of country; the other is the standpoint of human beings.