The Anglo‐American Origins and International Diffusion of the “Third Way”

Abstract

Although much has been written about the meanings of the “Third Way,” a term popularized by Prime Minister Tony Blair in Britain and U.S. President Bill Clinton to characterize their similar approaches to governing, little analysis has been done of the phenomenon of the rapid diffusion of this concept internationally. Although the Democratic Leadership Council used the term first in the United States in 1991, it was decided at a high‐level meeting between Clinton and New Labour executive officials in 1997 to popularize the term to describe their common approach to governing. This paper describes both the intellectual and political sources of this concept and how it has spread, not only as a label for its originators, but also to other governments and parties in the world. The test of whether the Third Way becomes recognized as a coherent ideology will be whether, over time, those who advocate it become identified with distinctive, consistent policies.