Outline the key characteristics of the Third Way approach to welfare provision.

This is an apparent move away from traditional left-wing policies; indeed some people in the Labour party regarded the third way as watered down neoliberalism of the previous Thatcherite government. The question now is how can the welfare state be reformed as Field suggested?

One way is by accepting that the system that works is the right one. There was a time when a Labour government would have fought against grammar schools and private schools. But taking into account the third way, it is clear grammar schools provide an excellent public service and allow academically minded students to flourish in a competitive environment which they may not encounter in all other state funded and state run schools. Grammar schools work and grammar schools now no longer seem to a target, even though selective schools stand against the old left principle of equality for all at all costs.

Another way is to allow the state and market to work together in a way that combines social justice and economic efficiency. A current example of such public-private partnerships may be the proposed Foundation Hospitals. It has been proposed that some hospitals would be allowed to run themselves free from government control, and to borrow money from private money markets. But they will still receive government funding to a large extent. Other examples might include the modernisation program undertaken on the London Tube, or an invitation for private firms to help raise the standards of education in schools.

Maintaining a society in which everyone can have at least have a decent life is to a large extent central to third way thinking. This means that people who would not otherwise have it are provided with basic security, but at the same time those who already can provide for their own security can still move up in life if they so desire. It is neither left wing, nor right wing in the traditional use of the terms as it is neither focused on equality, nor are the positives of individualism focused upon. It is in principle a powerful argument, as the weak can rely on the state for protection, whilst the strong still have an incentive to be successful and to set their sights high. The third way approach accepts the obligations of the many to support those in need without hindering their personal aims in life.

The third way assumes there are reciprocal obligations between individuals and the state. This is in contrast to the old right’s view that the emphasis should be on the duties of citizens, and the old left’s view that the emphasis should be on individual’s rights. There is to some extent an un-written agreement between the state, and the citizen. The citizen has the duty to be law abiding, whilst the state has a duty to provide protection from non law-abiding citizen though the police and judicial systems. Equally, individuals have a duty to seek work and not be reliant on benefits, while the state has an obligation to provide work and help those who are unemployed to find work. This leads onto what Labour called the New Deal.

One of Labour’s flagship third way policies was the New Deal for the unemployed. This policy was based on the idea that most people who are unemployed do not want to be unemployed, and instead the reason for their position is because they lack the skills employers want. It existed in 3 main parts. The first of which aimed to give those unemployed people over the age of 18 a chance to ‘develop their potential, gain skills and experience and find work.’ Initially it appears the system was a resounding success. In May 1997 Tony Blair promised that he would get 250 000 young people off of benefits and into work and in a speech on the 30th of November 2000, he announced that the New Deal programme successfully got 254 520 young people into work. Those unemployed who refused training or work offered to them lost 60% of their benefit. However the major criticism of the system is that not enough people stayed on in their new jobs.

Secondly, the Labour Party offered incentives to employers, in the form of tax breaks, to employ and train people who had been on benefit for long periods of time. These rebates lasted for 6 months, and hence there was a fear that they would merely serve to subsidise employers over a short period of time and give no incentive to hold onto the staff past this 6-month stage. 6 months was seen as insufficient time to train someone to the point they would become attractive to prospective employers.

Lastly, lone-parents were especially targeted at getting to work once their children were of school age. They were offered help searching for jobs, training, and with after school care for their children. Each lone-parent was assigned an individual caseworker, who stayed with them throughout their employment. The idea was this caseworker would grow to understand the specific needs of each individual. Incentives to lone-parents included priority service from the Child Support Agency, and tax credits to help with child care costs.

Housing provision is another aspect of welfare provision that has changed notably since third way politics has become the norm. Policies in the 1980’s and 1990’s aimed at increasing the number of people who own their houses were successful in terms of uptake. However this apparent success has brought about problems in itself. It resulted in a lack of good quality low cost housing for those people unable to buy. These houses which councils were left with were, more often than not, the worst houses. They were the houses people did not choose to buy themselves. This was at a time when councils were under increasing financial restrictions, and were unable to afford to invest in the houses. The end result was a fall in the number of quality houses available, and a rise in homelessness. The incoming Labour government in 1997 had promised to resolve this housing problem. They chose to try and do this by placing housing stock under the control of housing associations. Indeed, in June 2001, Labour announced the biggest sale of council houses to date, selling 328 000 houses on to housing associations.

In practical terms, in my opinion, there is precious little to separate the third way from the new right. Labour were out of power for 18 years from 1979 to 1997. It was clear that the British people were not interested in living in a high tax country where to a large extent personal freedoms were restricted, because people did not have the money to spend on themselves. Labour, hence, were forced to adapt and to appeal to the voters, they had to move towards the centre. Blair portrayed the Tories as trying to destroy society in this country through falling social benefits. However in 18 years of Tory rule the state’s share of overall GDP fell only by 1%, from 44% to 43%.

Word Count 1656

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Bibliography

• “Goldilocks Politics” The Economist Dec. 19th, 1998, 48
• Alcock, Cliff, Social Policy, Harlow: Pearson Education, 2004
• Jones, Bill, Politics UK, Harlow: Pearson Education, 2001
• Giddens, Anthony, The Third Way, Cambridge: Polity Press, 1998
• Giddens, Anthony, Third Way and its Critics, Cambridge: Polity Press, 2000
• Hutton, William, The Stakeholding Society, Cambridge: Polity Press, 1999

• Blair, Tony, “Speech on the New Deal” Nov. 30, 2000:

• NIACE online, “New Deal”:

• BBC Online, “Q&A: Foundation hospital row” Sept. 18, 2003:

• Field, Frank, Making Welfare Work, London: New Brunswick, 1995

• Weaver, Matt, “Government launches record council home sell-off,” The Guardian, June 22 2001

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