http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl/longterm/iraq/stories/blair1998.htm
" Blair and Clinton have met twice this year -- once in this country and last month in England -- to discuss the so-called third way strategy that is neither the traditional right or left approach to governing. Clinton also explored the subject at a May meeting with Romano Prodi, the Italian prime minister, and on June 7 at a Camp David meeting with Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso.
While playing down any immediate organizational plans, some of those involved in the discussions suggest that the long-range aim would be to set up a middle-ground counterpart to the Socialist International on the left or the International Democrat Union on the right.
Any formal efforts to set up such an organization or forum would begin after the German elections in September. If Gerhard Schroeder, the Social Democratic candidate, wins, the German leadership would help Clinton and Blair counter some quiet opposition in the French and Portuguese left.
In place of direct state intervention, Clinton and Blair have been promoting a version of liberal-left politics that calls for competitive, free-market strategies while using government to prevent the market from devastating those least prepared to live without the protections of the welfare state."
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Political/Third_Way.html
"It is in this context that Blair and Clinton proclaimed themselves pioneers of a new Third Way that pursues a middle course between the nasty conservative right and unpragmatic old left, and they have been joined in this pursuit by Schroder and other social democrats. It is notable that Clinton is a charter member of this new set, as he is also a charter member of the Democratic Leadership Council, which is an openly right-wing faction of the not very social democratic Democratic Party. Blair and other European social democrats have frequently expressed admiration for the U.S. model, with its low wages, job insecurity, contingent labor, and relatively low unemployment levels. The convergence of thought and policy among Blair, Schroder, and Clinton indicates how far to the right European social democracy has traveled.
The most remarkable feature of Third Way leaders' thought is its virtual identity with neoliberal doctrine and with what market operatives believe in and strive for in policy-making. Blair and Clinton can't speak too highly of the efficacy of the market and the importance of bringing as much as possible within its orbit. Blair's speeches, his government's position papers, and his joint statement with Schroder in June 1999 are a litany of cliches dear to the hearts of the business community and right wing: no more "tax and spend," and although budgets have "reached the limits of acceptability" (Blair) we must lower taxes, but only to reward "hard work and enterprise" and to make business "globally competitive." Global competitiveness also calls for the containment of wages and pensions via "labor flexibility" and "hard decisions" to get welfare costs down and to make people more "responsible."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/458626.stm
"So what is this Third Way embraced by Blair and Clinton and now by a number of European leaders, most notably Gerhart Schröder in Germany? One observer described it as the Loch Ness Monster of British politics - everyone's heard of it , there are occasional sightings but no-one is sure the beast really exists. Or as another remarked the third way is ethereally defined. One supporter writing to The Independent claimed it was a form of benevolent pragmatism - a philosophy that asked of each policy - is it good, does it work? For this reason he argued it was hated by the old left and the new right - the new right because they never did anything that was good and the old left because they never did anything that worked . "
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