Whatever their differences of character and the differences of the
political systems are, William Clinton and Tony Blair are joined at
the hip as energetic parishioners of the so-called Third way politics.
Both restructured and repositioned their parties by breaking with
their party’s old style policies. New Labour and New Democrats both
meant a clear cut from their parties political past. With a new
agenda and new politics and last but not least a new and a well
organized party machine rallied behind them, both succeeded in
taking back the power after many years of opposition. But to what
political price?
In order to win back the political center Bill Clinton and Tony Blair
made significant strategically policy shifts that parted with their
parties old-style liberal/ socialist 1paths to more business friendly
and social conservative policies.
In this paper a comparison and analysis of the political „Third way
politics“ in the United States of America and Great Britain shall be
made. The emphasis is on how and why these politics were adopted
and whether they ultimately succeeded.
Content
1. Introduction
2. The Restructuring and Repositioning of the Democratic and the Labour party
3. The DLC and the Third Way
4. Bill Clinton and Tony Blair
5. Agenda setting
6. Conclusion
7. Bibliography
Introduction
Whatever their differences of character and the differences of the political systems are, William Clinton and Tony Blair are joined at the hip as energetic parishioners of the so-called Third way politics. Both restructured and repositioned their parties by breaking with their party’s old style policies. New Labour and New Democrats both meant a clear cut from their parties political past. With a new agenda and new politics and last but not least a new and a well organized party machine rallied behind them, both succeeded in taking back the power after many years of opposition. But to what political price?
In order to win back the political center Bill Clinton and Tony Blair made significant strategically policy shifts that parted with their parties old-style liberal/ socialist1paths to more business friendly and social conservative policies.
In this paper a comparison and analysis of the political „Third way politics“ in the United States of America and Great Britain shall be made. The emphasis is on how and why these politics were adopted and whether they ultimately succeeded.
2. The Restructuring and Repositioning of the Democratic and Labour party.
-Genesis of the Third way politics: New Labour and New Democrats-
In 1992 Bill Clinton launched a largely unexpected victory over George W. Bush senior and became the 42nd President of the United States. Four years later Tony Blair won by an even bigger landslide triumph after more than 18 years of lethargic opposition. Both victories were anticipated by crucial politic shifts of new formatted parties known as the New Democrats and New Labour. There is no doubt that those pragmatic shifts were one of the key reasons for their ultimate success.
To understand the genesis of New Labour and New Democrats it is inevitable to go back to the late 70ties early 80ties. The parties of Bill Clinton and Tony Blair are both a product of those decades were they found each other in an almost helpless opposition in the face of their two proponent conservative opponents.
In America the decline of the left can be traced back to the disastrous defeat of president Jimmy Carter against Ronald Reagan in 1980, if not even earlier when Mc Govern was defeated by Richard Nixon in 1972.2 With Ronald Reagan and Margret Thatcher began a long conservative era that was part of the counter movement to the progressive and turbulent years of the civil rights and anti war movements of the sixties and seventies. In America the still prevalent shock of the Vietnam War, the Watergate scandal and the Iran hostage crises created on one hand a political climate of disillusion and cynicism. On the other hand a desire for a strong and resolute leader who represented American values like many people saw incorporated by Ronald Reagan.3
Great Britain was suffering from one of their biggest economical crises in history when the Labour Party lost the trust of the electorate to the Conservative party. During the famous „winter of discontent“ from 1978-1979, the Labour government tried to keep the inflation under control by attempting to enforce a law that pay rises have to be kept under 5% percent; first for the private and later for the public sector. Under massive protest and strikes by trade unions that were demanding larger pay raises Prime Minister James Callaghan who was dependent of the support of the unions had to give in. Shortly after the Labour Party was defeated by Margret Thatcher who implemented a radical business and market oriented agenda.
Both Democrats as well as the British Labour Party found themselves in one of their biggest crisis that should last until the early/ mid 90ties with Clinton and Blair winning office.
That is not to say that both parties had not began to re-position their parties before. The change both parties experienced did not come over night but was the result of an ongoing debate between the old-style politicians and reformers within their parties. Which was eventually won by the reform oriented party fractions of both parties.4
In Great Britain Neil Kinnock and John Smith had started some fundamental structural changes like cutting down their close ties with labour unions and parting from a socialist oriented economic policy that would lay the foundation to the New Labour under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. But the final cut with the socialist past of the Labour party was not completed until Tony Blair eliminated the famous clause IX of the party’s constitution.5
In the United States similar adjustments within the Democratic Party were evolving some years earlier, although in retrospect they look less radical and far reaching as the Labour party’s reformation. This has to do on one hand with the fact that the Democratic party had never been- even under president Roosevelt - as far left-wing as the Labour Party, which considered itself to be a socialist party. So naturally the policy shifts of the Democrats were not as dramatic as the metamorphosis of the Labour Party. On the other hand it has to the role of the party in a presidential democracy is a different one from the role of a party in a parliamentary system. The Democratic candidates or representatives enjoy much more freedom to articulate an independent opinion from their party. The strict separation of the legislative and executive power in the American constitution makes the president and his party relatively independent from each other, whereas in the UK a government could not govern without the full support of its party and congressmen.
Never the less the reform course the Democratic Party was undergoing was profoundly affecting the party’s profile too. With the emergence of Democrat Leadership Council called DLC in 1985, the Democratic Party generated ideas to initiate the reshaping of the party’s profile. In the beginning the DLC was just one political organ among others but as more and more Democratic leaders joined it, it became the most powerful and dynamic organization within the Democratic Party. As a matter of fact the ideas and principles the DLC was generating became the basis for what became later known as „Third way politics“.
[...]
1 The American (mis) use the term liberal to refer to a left wing position.
2 Some scholars regard the presidency of Jimmy Carter as exceptional in the context of its conservative zeitgeist. They argue his election was rather caused by the desastrous administration of Richard Nixon than in great sympathy for liberal policies. Compare: Juergen Heideking, Geschichte der USA.
3 Juergen Heideking. Geschichte der USA. p. 483.
4 Third way Leadership, old way government: Blair, Clinton and the power to govern. British Journal of Politics and International Relations.p. 37
5 The original version of Clause IV, was drafted by Sidney Webb in November 1917 and adopted by the party in 1918.
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