The ‘Third Way’ in European Social Policy

Abstract

Investigations of the OMC normally focus on its governance features. It is, however, equally important to examine its policy content and the model of social policy that it promotes. This chapter demonstrates that the OMC is based on a ‘third way’ social policy approach similar to that which informed ‘New Labour’s’ social policy agenda in the early to mid-1990s in the United Kingdom. About ten years after the revival of the term ‘third way’ in the public discourse it has largely disappeared again. In addition, in many EU countries in which ‘new’ social democrats were governing in the end of the 1990s, conservative and liberal-led governments have replaced their predecessors. This is, for instance, the case in France, Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands, Greece, Portugal and Finland. At the time of writing, also the ‘New Labour’ government in the UK is experiencing a crisis and declining public support.KeywordsLabour MarketSocial InclusionSocial ProtectionEuropean CouncilLabour Market PolicyThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.