Major, Blair and the third way in social policy
By: LUND, Brian
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ArticlePublisher: Malden, MA : Blackwell Publishers, February 2008Social Policy & Administration 42, 1, p. 43-58Abstract: Tony Blair's adoption of the catchphrase the Third Way to précis New Labour's policy orientation allowed him to distance New Labour from Old Labour and to appropriate many of John Major's modifications to Thatcherism, albeit framed within a new political language. This article sets out the basic similarities and differences between the social policies of the Major and Blair governments, arguing that, although the policies have been presented within different discourses, there has been a marked similarity in policy content, with Major espousing Third Way policies if not Third Way rhetoric. Indeed, towards the end of his second term of office, Blair started to go beyond the Third Way and towards Margaret Thatcher's favoured model of spirited competition between public and private suppliers
Tony Blair's adoption of the catchphrase the Third Way to précis New Labour's policy orientation allowed him to distance New Labour from Old Labour and to appropriate many of John Major's modifications to Thatcherism, albeit framed within a new political language. This article sets out the basic similarities and differences between the social policies of the Major and Blair governments, arguing that, although the policies have been presented within different discourses, there has been a marked similarity in policy content, with Major espousing Third Way policies if not Third Way rhetoric. Indeed, towards the end of his second term of office, Blair started to go beyond the Third Way and towards Margaret Thatcher's favoured model of spirited competition between public and private suppliers
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