The reform of welfare and the way we live now: A critique of Giddens and the Third Way

Contemporary Politics

Volumn 7, Issue 2, 2001, Pages 149-170

  Wetherly, Paul ^a  

^a LEEDS METROPOLITAN UNIVERSITY   (United Kingdom)

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EID: 84937334902     PISSN: 13569775     EISSN: 14693631     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/13569770120064171     Document Type: Article

References (37)

1. Giddens, A., 1998. The Third Way. The Renewal of Social Democracy Cambridge (hereafter TW) and the sequel The Third Way and its Critics, Cambridge, 2000 (hereafter TWC); T. Blair, The Third Way, London, 1998; and Third Way, Phase Two', Prospect, March 2001
2. White, S., 1998. Interpreting the Third Way: Not One Road, But Many'. Renewal, 6 (2) April
3. Powell, M., 2000. 'New Labour and the Third Way in the British Welfare State: A New and Distinctive Approach?'. Critical Social Policy, 20 (1) For an assessment of New Labour's social policy set against a critical discussion of the Third Way see
4. Notably TW and TWC. These works draw on themes developed in his earlier Beyond Left and Right. The Future of Radical Politics, Cambridge, 1994 (hereafter BLR).
5. The Third Way is about 'fixed values and goals but pragmatism about means' (T. Blair, The Third Way, London, 1998).
6. The point that there have always been variants of social democracy rather than one singular doctrine is made by David Marquand, 'Premature Obsequies: Social Democracy Comes in From the Cold', in A. Gamble and T. Wright (eds), The NCTV Social Democracy, Oxford, 1999.
7. Offe, C., 1984. Contradictions of the Welfare State 92–100. London This dimension of welfare can be understood in terms of 'active proletarianization' (
8. Wetherly, P., 1999. 'Socialism and the "Social Revolutions of Our Time'. Imprints, 3 (3) an assessment of these claims see
9. approach is set out at length by Giddens in The Nation State and Violence, Cambridge, 1985.
10. See P. Wetherly, 'Marxism, Manufactured Uncertainty and the Ecological Crisis', Contemporary Politics, 5(3), 1999.
11. For an authoritative survey see C. Pierson, Beyond the Welfare State?, Cambridge, 1998.
12. Block, F., 1987. Revising State Theory 51–68. Philadelphia
13. Held, D., 1998. 'The Timid Tendency'. Marxism Today, November/December
14. Levitas, R., 1998. The Inclusive Society? Social Exclusion and New Labour 113Basingstoke
15. Goldblatt, D., 1997. 'Economic Globalisation and the Nation State: The Transformation of Political Power?'. Soundings,: 76
16. For a survey of views of the crisis of the welfare state from left and right see C. Pierson, Beyond the Welfare State, Cambridge, 1999.
17. Thus during the last quarter of the last century 'the share of the nation's spending that has been taxed and spent for social welfare purposes … ceased to rise'… [This was] 'welfare with the lid on' (H. Glennerster, 'Welfare with the Lid On', in H. Glennerster and J. Hills, The State of Welfare, Milton Keynes, 1998, p. 308).
18. 'Public expenditure as a proportion of national income has more or less reached the limits of acceptability' (T. Blair and G. Schroeder, 'Joint Declaration', London, 8 June 1999).
19. Brown, Guardian, 2 August 1997.
20. Ruth Levitas similarly notes the 'denial of structural conflicts of interest' in New Labour discourse and the invocation of a 'consensual world' (The Inclusive Society? Social Exclusion and New Labour, Basingstoke, 1998, p. 114). Mouffe criticizes the notion that 'we live in a society which is no longer structured by social division … the radical centrism advocated by New Labour is in fact a renunciation of the basic tenet of radical politics: the definition of the adversary' ('The Radical Centre', Soundings, 9, 1998, p. 13).
21. The terms are taken from D. Marquand, 'Premature Obsequies', p. 10.
22. The UK 'can be both fairer and more successful: indeed, … it must be both fairer and more successful if it is to be either', 'there will be no solid economic success without more social justice. At the same time it is also true that we cannot have social justice without a decent measure of economic success' (Commission on Social Justice, Social Justice, London, 1994, 17–18
23. Giddens, in A. Giddens and C. Pierson, Converstions with Anthony Giddens. Making Sense of Modernity, Cambridge, 1998, p. 153.
24. Giddens, quoted in The Times Higher Education Supplement, 29 October 1999.
25. See, for example, I. Cough, The Political Economy of the Welfare State, Basingstoke, 1979.
26. T. Blair, The Government's Agenda for the Future', Speech given on 8 February 2001; and 'Third Way, Phase Two', Prospect, March 2001.
27. C. Pierson, Beyond the Welfare State, Cambridge, 1999.
28. T. Blair, Speech to the Socialist International conference, Paris, 8 November 1999. Similarly the Blair-Schroeder Joint Declaration sees as a hallmark of modernized social democracy that 'it stands not only for social justice but also for economic dynamism and the unleashing of creativity and innovation'. '… all deserve to be given an equal chance in life to fulfil the potential with which they are born … And what is right on ethical grounds is, in the 1990s, good for the economy too…. The dynamic economies of the future will be those that unlock the talents of everyone. So prosperity for a company or country can only be delivered if we get the best out of all people, and that cannot happen unless we have continuous and accessible equality of opportunity' (Gordon Brown, 'Why Labour is Still Loyal to the Poor', Guardian, 2 August 1997).
29. Alan Carung, 'New Labour's Polity: Tony Giddens and the "Third Way', Imprints, 3 3
30. The distinction between poverty and social exclusion is discussed by Carey Oppenheim, 'An Overview of Poverty and Social Exclusion', in Carey Oppenheim (ed.), An Inclusive Society, IPPR, 1998.
31. See Raymond Plant, Modern Political Thought, Oxford, 1991 for a discussion of the idea of social rights.
32. As one of its 'fundamentals' the Third Way 'proposes to construct a new social contract based on the theorem "no rights without responsibilities". Those who profit from social goods should both use them responsibly, and give something back to the community in return' (TWC, p. 52. See also TW, 65–6). 'For too long, the demand for rights from the state was separated from the duties of citizenship and the imperative for mutual responsibility on the part of individuals and institutions. … The rights we enjoy reflect the duties we owe: rights and opportunity without responsibility are engines of selfishness and greed' (Tony Blair, The Third Way, London, 1998). 'In the past: … Too often rights were elevated above responsibilities, but the responsibility of the individual to his or her family, neighbourhood and society cannot be offloaded on to the state. If the concept of mutual obligation is forgotten, this results in a decline in community spirit, lack of responsibility towards neighbours, rising crime and vandalism, and a legal system that cannot cope' (Blair and Schroeder, Joint Declaration).
33. The purpose of collective action is 'to empower individuals to fulfil their potential and meet their responsibilities' (Blair, 'Third Way, Second Phase', Prospect, March 2001). Rights are displaced by opportunity in Blair's declaration that New Labour's aspiration to create 'a society that is genuinely open and based on merit' requires 'a radical extension of opportunity, matched by a true sense of responsibility' (Speech, 8 February 2001).
34. Levitas, Ruth. 1998. The Inclusive Society? Social Exclusion and New Labour 120Basingstoke
35. In rejecting equality of outcome in favour of 'continuous and accessible equality of opportunity' Gordon Brown refers to 'tackling equality from first principles' and 'tackling the causes of poverty … and not simply the consequences' (Guardian, 2 August 1997).
36. Commission on Social Justice, Social Justice, Vintage, 1994, p. 1. Similarly, an 'intelligent welfare state … must enable people to achieve self-improvement and selfsupport. It must offer a hand-up, not just a hand-out.
37. Lister, Ruth. 1998. 'From Equality to Social Exclusion: New Labour and the Welfare State'. Critical Social Policy.