The Difference between the Third Way and Socialism - Essay Example

?Topic:  Modern Political Ideas: THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE THIRD WAY AND SOCIALISM? Introduction Modern politics is a wide area to be discussed about and in concise it can be discussed as something different from medieval and classical political thoughts. Modern political theory comprise of western civilization history in an academic perspective. It has information about Western Europe and Anglo American world. This can include thoughts from western philosophers like Kant, Marx Hegel,Heder , Hobbes, Rousseau and miller. It has ideas and thoughts about industrial revolution in 19th century .In modern political ideas, new political theories and definitions are explored and explained. Modern political ideas suggest that the glimpse shown by social philosophers are more or less unreal and exaggerated. In order to portray political philosophies more realistically, practical matters must be included in them. If we go little deeper into Modern political ideas we can analyze two concepts namely; Third Way and socialism. It is necessary to understand these two concepts in order to analyze or interpret them. These two ideas are separate still share a common link to each other. According to BBC(1999)“Put at its most basic the third way is something different and distinct from liberal capitalism with its unswerving belief in the merits of the free market and democratic socialism with its demand management and obsession with the state”. While socialism is a system in economy where exist the social ownership concept or government ownership rather than private owning. Here public is given importance rather than private and every individual is demanded to have equal right on property. The Concept of third Way and Socialism The third way is a reconciliation platform for left wing and right wing of political democracy. In another words, Third way can be called as a combination of socialism and capitalism. The concept of third way can be described as hidden agenda which reject socialism and also capitalism. Third way was created as revaluation agenda which looked into the compromise of left and right wing economic and political policies. In thier way attempt is made to distribute skills, capacities, manpower and blocking incoming re-distribution. In one way third way can be described as “centerism”. It emphasizes on responsibility, obligation and de-centralizing government while giving less importance to income re- distribution. As per Mercer (2005)“On the world stage, socialism has reinvented itself successfully and has surfaced in the guise of the vaunted Third Way whose main apparatchiks are the Clintons, the pair from Cool Britannia and the German Chancellor, Gerhard Schroeder”. The third way is a middle path where the government will tread on in order to escape the liberal attitude of socialist principles and capitalism view of industrialists. This is a successful method of governing people as citizens will get ownership to property as well as freedom to act on their own. They can also govern themselves regarding their capabilities, rights, property ownership and responsibilities in society. The ideas and principles of third way is not accurate, hence their specification is difficult. There are arguments that third way politicians speak on a double standards. The relation of third way with socialism Socialism has reinvented successfully in the new age and new socialist concepts are bandwagon into third way politics. The concepts of third way politics are adhered by social democrats to formulate third way social democracy. The third way democracy proponents argue that it is not socialism and it is “competition capitalism”. By accepting capitalism the new right is representing social democrats. There is something called centralized socialism and decentralized socialism. However centralized socialism is traditional and decentralized socialism needs to be taken over by the former. The association of state ownership and social ownership has an automatic association and it is followed by traditional socialist. Now the emphasis is on state ownership by trafiti0nal socialist and it not a detective aspect of socialism. In decentralized socialism, the power is given to the workers rather than state owners. According to decentralized socialism the entire society has the right to the fruits of workers. Talking about first way and second way, there is a middle way or third way which takes the stand between capitalism and socialism. It is otherwise called “centrism”. The centrism is the third way persuaded by the Clinton administration. The third way is the middle path and has some components of socialism. Third way is also called “competition socialism”. The Tony Blair also had treaded on the third way along with both U.S. President and German Chancellor Schroder. According to Ropar(1999) “The Labour Government claims that it is treading a middle path between the "big government" of the old Left and the free market agenda of the New Right. Its ideology is similar to that of the "Third Way" pursued by the Clinton Administration in the US during the 1990s “. The Difference of Third way with Socialism i)What is third way? The third way implies to the middle way between the socialism and capitalism. Socialism is something which has excessive faith on the state or society while capitalism believes in capitalist and wealthy industrialist of the economy. The third way Guru Anthony Giddens, who is a UK sociologists suggests that there is an old social democracy of first way and second way of capitalism and third way takes the middle path. According to Holmes(2009)“The third way placed itself firmly as the inheritors of this search for a new social philosophy”. The first path puts too much trust in state and second path puts too much trust in market and UK Prime Minister Tony Blaire wanted a middle path which trusts both in a unique manner. It is a centre agenda which rejects politics and new right, this centre agenda neither rejects socialism completely nor accepts capitalism completely. ii) Differences of third way with Socialism a) Economic and political power ; In socialism , the political and economical power is concentrated in a governing elite. Where as in the third way, political and economical power is accessible to all alike . Economical power is essential to citizens to access economical resources. If there is no economic power, people can face difficulty in living and getting living resources. In his book Tucker (2010) wrote “Because of the economical problem of scarcity, no society has enough resources to produce all good and services necessary to satisfy all human needs.” Economic power gives freedom for human to produce and use goods and services as much needed. b) Capital Ownership ; The capital ownership is concentrated in a collective group of elites knows as government officials. Here in third way the capital ownership is de-concentrated and every person is made accessible to it. According to Powell (2000) “The Labour government elected in May 1997 has seen the reform of the welfare states to be one of its major tasks. Its big idea to achieve this is the third way, which is said to be a new and distinctive approach that differs from both the old left and the new right” c) Income & Capital ; The governing elite gets a secure income and capital in socialism, while in Third way every person is accessible to secure income. There is no income re-distribution in socialism whereas in third way, the income and capital is not held by few government elites. In such a way socialism is not good for people whereas third way give freedom to people in capital acquirement. d)Economic Freedom ; The individuals are denied economic freedom and sovereignty in socialism ,while in third way economic freedom is available to all people along with social justice. Economic freedom is very essential for people in socialism but the latter does not provide it to people. Only with economic freedom people can enjoy life. e)Institution : In socialism institutionalized there is envy and in third way there is social justice. The socialism is seen as nothing better than institutionalized envy .There is enough social justice in third way system of politics. f)Income security : The materialistic ideology for the income and security and well being of the person is looked into in Socialism While moral philosophy and spiritual value of every person is given importance in third way system. Spiritual value and moral behaviour of a person is very important for the upgrading of a society. g) System of working : The system of working in Socialism is labor centric . As per Progressive living (2001) “In the labor-centric economy, most forms of production involves a great deal of manual labor”. So labor is given importance with right to property in socialism .and in third way system kelsonian binary economic system is followed. h)Orientation : In the Socialism, the orientation is , zero-sum, scarcity lose – lose ,forced leaving orientation. Where as in third way system the orientation is win -win synergetic one. ii)Prices and wages ; In socialism prices and wages are controlled by the government while in third way system prices and wages are decided by the free market along with profits. Here the socialism is not good as the prices and wages are calculated by a group of people called government elites. This does not give any power to the people in economical market. j) Credit :’ All the credit is under the control of the state, while in third way universalized access to capital credit through local institution. Conclusion There are three main ways in which political arena can be controlled and they are socialism, capitalism and the third way. The third way is something between the socialism and capitalism. It is made in order to avoid the harsh disadvantages of Socialism and capitalism. In third way much freedom is given to people and the government. Socialism allows the concentration of power and wealth in the hands of government for the distribution to the labor class. In third way every individual is given freedom and importance and is chosen by Clinton and Tony Blair as an apt way of ruling their country. In socialism the manpower of the labor class is given excessive importance. The third way was innovated to give freedom to both government and individual people. In socialism and capitalism freedom and power is given excessively to one party. In socialism, the ownership of property and capital is with government while in capitalism it is with the wealthy industrialist. In both the cases the people are suffocating without power or freedom. According to Connell(2010)“Socialists understand that individuals are embedded in their social and economic environments, and therefore believe that more often than not the good of the individual is best achieved in what is good for the collective as a whole” .Also in socialism the collective whole is given importance rather than individual people. For the society to flourish the individual self and their needs and wants are to be catered to .Looking collectively and ignoring the needs and wants of a person only bring forth frustration and agony among citizens. So even when they have similarity the socialism and third way is different in their own ways. Bibliography BBC. 1999. UK Politics What is the Third Way? . [ONLINE] Available at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/458626.stm. [Accessed 23 April 12]. Connell,J. 2001. A Brief Introduction to Socialism. [ONLINE] Available at:. http://www.bergonia.org/Gov/socialism.html. [Accessed 02May 12]. Holmes, A 2009. The Third Way: Globalisation's Legacy. 1st ed. Leicester: Matador. Tucker, I.B., 2010. Economics for Today. 5th ed. Mason: Cengage Learning. Mercer,I. 2005. Third Way is Socialism's New Bandwagon. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.ilanamercer.com/ppe13.htm. [Accessed 23 April 12]. Powell, M, 2000. New Labour and the third way in the British welfare state: a new and distinctive approach?. Critical Social Policy ltd., 20/1, 39-60. .Progressive Living, Capitalism, Socialism & Communism: What They Are, Why They Don't Work, What Works Better, [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.progressiveliving.org/economics/capitalism_socialism_communism.htm. [Accessed 02 May 12]. Roper,B. 1999. What is the third way?. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.iso.org.nz/socialist-review/archive/46/203-what-is-the-qthird-wayq.html. [Accessed 01 May 12]. Read More