Third Way Movements

The term third way movement is an important feature of global public life that refers to a political, economic, cultural, or, in some cases, religious movement that is considered not to be associated, aligned, or compatible with the factions that dominate the sociopolitical context of its time. In the modern era, such factions usually consist of “conservatives” on the one hand and “socialists” on the other (with the exception of the United States, where the contrast to “conservative” is “liberal”). As a result, most third way movements claim to be neither conservative nor socialist (or liberal), and thus neither “rightist” nor “leftist,” but to represent a “third” position. In some cases, the term refers also to a movement or to a social group that is not affiliated with any other existing group of its time and/or its geographical and thematic space.

The description of what the third position exactly is, and which specific features it includes, varies strongly from movement to movement. It depends on the political, social, and ideological context of a given society at a given time. In fact, the concept of “third way” ranges from notions of being an alternative to both the traditional rightist and leftist sociopolitical and ideological patterns and, thus, of being opposed to the competing conceptual mind-sets and strategic frameworks of left and right, to the very contrary: to the notion of being an intermediate or even integrating approach between them (i.e., a unifying position between left and right). This latter notion sometimes includes new, overarching mind-sets of noncompetitive and conciliatory characteristics, which are often proposed as the only appropriate approaches for the conditions of the globalized society of the 21st century and beyond.

In sum, the meaning of third way ranges from opposing existing sociopolitical structures and their ideological traits to integrating their strengths and positive systemic features while eliminating their weaknesses. The method of this latter approach is often described as “to include and to transcend.” It follows that the basic dialectic in third way movements is to find a balance between the tendency toward opposition and alternative-building on the one hand, and toward integration and unifying mainstream modernization on the other hand.