The Guardian has a dossier on Third Way politics and policy, leading off with a passionate and well-written piece by sociologist Anthony Giddens. Definitely worth a look. One of the contributers, Peter Mandelson, outlines a plan that’s exactly the sort of political program I’d like to see the left adopt:
First, equality has always been central to the political mission of the left. But this means not just being a moral force against inequality but a genuinely transforming agent of social mobility.
The second task is to create a strategy for higher growth and productivity that offers an alternative framework of economic reform to the familiar neo-liberal prescriptions of the right.
Third, we need to look again at building a new politics…to fight the battle for a politics relevant to a sceptical and insecure population who question the capacity of politicians to make a real difference to their lives.
Finally, the left needs a new response to insecurity. This is more than unemployment and economics; it includes crime, migration, public services, identity and foreign policy.
Granted, these recommendations are all broad and maybe on face value inoffensive to most people. But the left in the US does have an unfortunate track record lately of spending all its energy trying to construct a morally pure realm detached from popular will, and of subsituting the style of political opposition for any hard thought about policy and pragmatic direction.
No comments have been added to this post yet.