Portugal, Sweden, and the United Kingdom).^4 Among the few coun-
tries still governed by conservatives, Germany was also about to turn
left, with the election of Gerhard Schro ̈der in October 1998. Like
Clinton and Blair before him, Schro ̈der offered a reformed set of pro-
gressive policies, conceived to please voters, described as “Die Neue
Mitte,” the new center.^5
The left was back, and it was back with a new message, which
claimed to define a distinctive path – a “Third Way” – between the
traditional left and the neoliberal right. In the meantime, the right
also softened up. After two Reagan mandates, presidential candidate
George H. W. Bush promised in 1988 a “kinder, gentler America.”^6
Succeeding Margaret Thatcher in 1990, John Major offered continuity,
but in a pragmatic, less abrasive fashion.^7 This milder conservatism
was often described as “Thatcherism with a grey face.”^8 In Mexico,
center-right president Vicente Fox, who came to power after a historic
election in 2000, often stressed that he was not a neoliberal – “yo no
soy neoliberal” – but simply interested in improving the income and
quality of life of his country’s families.^9 Just as social-democratic
parties were constrained by pressures to maintain competitive tax
rates and a balanced budget, conservatives had to face the unflinching
(^4) Philip Manow, Armin Scha ̈fer, and Hendrik Zorn,European Social Policy and
Europe’s Party-Political Center of Gravity, 1957–2003, MPIfG Discussion
Paper (Max-Planck-Institut fu ̈r Gesellschaftsforschung Ko ̈ln), 04/6, October
5 2004, p. 29 (www.mpi-fg-koeln.mpg.de/pu/mpifg_dp/dp04-6.pdf).
Russell J. Dalton, “Germany’s Vote for a ‘New Middle’,”Current History,
6 vol. 98, no. 627, April 1999, 176–79.
Fred I. Greenstein, “The Prudent Professionalism of George Herbert Walker
Bush,”Journal of Interdisciplinary History, vol. 31, no. 3, Winter 2001,
7 385–92, p. 388.
Philip Norton, “The Conservative Party: ‘In Office But Not in Power’,” in
Anthony King, Lain McLean, Pippa Norris, Philip Norton, David Sanders, and
Patrick Seyd (eds.),New Labour Triumphs: Britain at the Polls, Chatham, NJ,
Chatham House, 1998, pp. 96–97; Christopher Stevens, “Thatcherism,
Majorism and the Collapse of Tory Statecraft,”Contemporary British History,
8 vol. 16, no. 1, Spring 2002, 119–50, pp. 135–36.
Martin Rhodes, “Restructuring the British Welfare State: Between Domestic
Constraints and Global Imperatives,” in Fritz W. Scharpf and Vivien A. Schmidt
(eds.),Welfare and Work in the Open Economy. Volume II. Diverse Responses
to Common Challenges, Oxford University Press, 2000 p. 62.
(^9) “Conversacio ́n que sostuvo el Presidente Fox con el periodista Jose ́Gutie ́rrez
Vivo ́,” Mexico, July 4, 2001 (http://fox.presidencia.gob.mx/actividades/?
contenido=1374).
Twenty-first-century rapprochement 167