According to Pierre Garello, Professor of Economics at the University Paul Cézanne Aix-Marseille, the 'Third Way' is holding back France, because the 'Third Way' is in practice socialism.
Garello shows the despondency the 'Third Way' has created in the youth of France. Among 16-29 year olds, only 39 percent thought it possible to change society, 26 percent thought professional life would be bright and 20 percent saw globalization as a source for opportunities. Sadly for us, youth confidence in the UK is little better: only 41 percent thought it possible to change society, 36 percent thought professional life would be bright and 23 percent saw globalization as a source for opportunities.
Garello's solutions are rooted in commonsense apply to the UK as much as France: we should challenge the state's achievements, encourage competition and promote the values of freedom and responsibility.
Vaclav Klaus, President of the Czech Republic and a Senior Fellow of the Adam Smith Institute, demands that we be clear there is no 'Third Way': "We want a market economy without any adjectives. Any compromises with that will only fuzzy up the problems we have... [W]e must be explicit that we are not aiming for a more efficient version of a system that has failed. The market is indivisible; it cannot be an instrument in the hands of central planners."
In 1927 Ludwig von Misses wrote much the same thing: "There is simply no other choice than this: either to abstain from interference in the free play of the market, or to delegate the entire management of production and distribution to the government. Either capitalism or socialism: there exists no middle way."
It is time it was acknowledged that much government policy that has gone under the 'Third Way rubric has simply been state intervention. It was born out of the failure of socialism, the consequent public disgust and the consequent need for socialist parties to reinvent themselves. It can be seen in this country in high taxes, government waste, failed public-private partnerships and excessive business regulation. The 'Third Way' is crypto-socialism and there are too few in politics who are prepared to fight it.
