The negation of power: from structuration theory to the politics of the Third Way

Abstract

In the last two decades Europe witnessed a despairing zeitgeist. Neo-liberalism lived its golden age and dictated its iron laws. Right-wing populism had come to stay. What had gone wrong with left-wing politics? At one with Chantal Mouffe, we claim that the programmatic turn of social democracy towards the Third Way has been fateful. We theoretically query the Third Way by analyzing the work of its perhaps foremost intellectual, Anthony Giddens. We trace the evolution of Giddens' thought from his theory of structuration over his vision of modernity to the formulation of the politics of the Third Way and disclose a tight connection between social theory and political project. While in Giddens' view human agency functions as the major source of social change, he disregards collective forms of contestation as unrealistic. This holds even more under modern conditions, where immanent possibilities of emancipation have been rendered possible and where the task of politics consists in ameliorating the individual's self-fulfillment by governing the almost unsteerable modern world. From here it is but a small step to Third Way politics. Giddens regards the latter as the form of rational governance which is due to replace the outdated quarrels over the good society. Whereas in our article we come to terms with some of Giddens' insights, it is on the whole at odds with both his theoretical and political endeavors. In this vein, in our discussion we flesh out an alternative vision of power and politics, utterly committed to radical democracy. Albeit the utopian moment is not to be found in this framework either, at least it remains an ever-present horizon.