Theorizing the third way: New Labour and social justice

This article seeks to identify distinctive core elements in the ideological standpoint of New Labour. Whilst accepting that New Labour has absorbed theoretical aspects of a number of centre-left traditions, it is argued that an interpretative reconstruction of the resulting ideological configuration reveals it to be a departure from those established traditions. A reading of John Rawls's liberal theory of justice is used as a means of characterizing New Labour's general ideological approach; the implications are then traced through to the policy level and a correspondence between Rawlsian liberalism and New Labour's agenda is established. On this basis, it is argued that New Labour has adopted a 'social liberal' position, emphasizing procedural fairness over distributive patterns, which can be viewed as a departure both from traditional 'social democracy' and from the 'neo-liberalism' of the recent right.