Abstract
The Third Way, as represented by Britain’s New Labour and by Germany’s SPD, was an attempt by the political Left to reformulate its political ideas in defense of the welfare state – which, under pressure from global capitalism and the New Right, had become untenable. This Third Way failed both politically and ideologically.
It failed ideologically because it was too optimistic about the opportunities that the globalization of capitalism could provide to the weak and excluded in society; in many ways, the Third Way adopted the neo-liberal arguments that formed the foundation for the New Right’s attack on the welfare state. It failed politically because the social democrats’ governing coalitions with liberal parties did not manage to hold on to power and were replaced by liberal-right coalitions – Great Britain is a typical example, as is the Czech Republic.