Socialism between fact and value: From Tony Blair to Hendrik de Man and back

In the long rivalry between ethical and scientific socialism, which spans the better part of the twentieth century, the former has stage-managed a remarkable comeback. This article traces some of the similarities between the first 'long wave' of ethical socialism and its current Third Way revival, focusing more particularly upon the work of Hendrik de Man. de Man pioneered a cultural socialism which emphasized universalistic communitarian values, and projected a central leadership role for socialist intellectuals in a broad middle class coalition. His subsequent collaboration with the Nazi occupants of his Belgian homeland simultaneously alerts us to the proximity of elements in his third way ideology to that of the radical right, and hence may inform a more critical view of the complex roots and authoritarian risks of third way thinking at the crossroads of socialism, fascism, and social science.