In search of a third way

Much has been said and written over the years about the need to find a third way in politics which advocates a synthesis of policies from both sides of the political divide. It was a term I first came across during the Swedish political debates of the 1980s but it was popularised more widely in the UK by Tony Blair’s government of 1997. It sounds like a great idea in theory but in practice it has generally only been adopted by politicians from the Social Democratic end of the spectrum and tends to fall out of fashion when they are replaced by politicians from the opposite side of the left-right divide. But now may be the time to find a genuine third way given the apparent inability of the political establishment to find solutions to the electorate’s current woes.

Andrew Heywood, in his book Key Concepts in Politics and International Relations, describes left-wing views as supporting interventionism  and collectivism whilst right-wing views  favour the market and individualism, though as he notes, “this distinction supposedly reflects deeper, if imperfectly defined, ideological or value differences.” Writing in their book The Government and Politics of France, Andrew Knapp and Vincent Wright argue that the main factor dividing the left and right wings in Western Europe is class, with the left seeking social justice through redistributive social and economic policies, while the right defends private property and capitalism. But political thinkers are increasingly questioning whether this distinction is adequate for modern industrialised economies. After all, we no longer operate in the extreme world of capitalists and serfs from which these class distinctions sprang (although it may sometimes feel like it).

Philip Collins made a very similar point in The Times last week with regard to the UK. In his view, “For most of the general elections since 1945, if an observer understood the class status of a voter then it was a relatively simple matter to predict their political allegiance.” But after the 2017 election, this view was no longer seen to work. “Party affiliation now matters less than cultural outlook and a better way to understand politics is to ask a person’s view on multiculturalism, immigration, globalisation, feminism and gay marriage.” And this goes to the heart of the problem facing politics in the developed world today – the options on offer no longer appeal to a sufficiently broad base with the result that nearly all countries in Europe are formed of coalitions. Even in the UK, which has traditionally enjoyed the luxury of a majority government, we have had a minority government for seven of the past nine years (and the one majority government delivered us the shambles that was the EU referendum).

Not only do incumbent government parties hold little appeal for voters but opposition parties have not been able to offer a viable alternative either. In 2017, German voters may have been disillusioned with Angela Merkel’s CDU-led government but they were not prepared to reward the traditional SPD opposition party with their votes, with the result that the AfD made up a lot of ground. This is not untypical. A study carried out for The Guardian last year shows that the share of votes gained by populist parties in Europe has tripled in the last 20 years with 1 in 4 voters now casting their ballot in favour of such parties. In other words, the political centre is being squeezed and traditionally moderate parties are increasingly finding themselves marginalised.

All this suggests that a reordering of the political spectrum is increasingly required. It has already happened in France where Emmanuel Macron’s La République En Marche swept its way to the French presidency and to victory in the 2017 parliamentary elections. Of course, things have not exactly gone his way since, with polling evidence suggesting that bar the unfortunate Francois Hollande, Macron is the most unpopular president in the last twenty years at this stage of their tenure. But that does not mean that restructuring is not required. They do say that elections are generally won from the centre of the political spectrum and as the Brexit debacle has shown, neither of the two main parties in the UK inhabit the centre ground occupied by the vast majority of voters.

Back in 1981, disaffected members of the Labour Party went off to form the SDP – a move which is today considered to have been a failure because the SDP quickly lost political momentum and was forced to join forces with the Liberal Party in 1988 to form the modern day Liberal Democrats. Collins argues that the SDP failed to build on its initial support because “it had to compete directly with [Labour] in an electorate still organised, essentially, by class structure.” I would argue that maybe the formation of the SDP was not the failure that is often painted. Even though it did not live up to initial expectations, it quickly boosted the representation of the third party to its highest since the 1930s and by 2010 it had gained sufficient momentum to post its highest representation since the last gasp of the old Liberal Party in 1923.

Today more than ever, when both the UK’s main political parties are riven with ideological zeal – the Conservatives leaning right and Labour tacking to the left – the political soil would appear to be sufficiently fertile to support a centrist party able to capture the centre ground. Confidence in politicians took a battering in the wake of the financial crisis – perhaps unfairly – but it has been justifiably shredded by the way in which Brexit negotiations have been handled. There are sufficient political dissidents in the Labour Party who might be tempted to find a new home. And as I have argued previously (here) the Conservatives also need a root-and-branch reform of their political ideology.

Inertia may be one of the most powerful of political forces. But according to one recent poll, 72% of respondents (here, see Table 43) suggested that the British political system needs a complete overhaul and 75% indicated that politicians are “not up to the job.” Those politicians so keen on listening to the will of the people might want to reflect on these findings. Surely we deserve better than a choice between hard-line right-wing free marketeers and socialists determined to create a Marxist paradise. If ever a time was ripe for a third way, it is now.