egalitarian direction in the 2000s. In the 1990s, the right was still
largely dominant and the left first had to re-establish itself as a cred-
ible alternative. The British Labour Party, in particular, had to dem-
onstrate its capability to govern, in a policy context shaped by almost
two decades of Thatcherism.^50 To do so, New Labour leaders devised
a program that downplayed many of the left’s traditional preoccu-
pations, including its preference for equality. In power, the Blair gov-
ernment nevertheless implemented important redistributive measures,
to reduce child and pensioner poverty in particular, as well as to
improve the income of low-paid workers. This “redistribution by
stealth” did not lower inequalities, but it prevented a further increase
in after-tax inequalities – which would have happened if the conser-
vative tax-benefit system had not been changed – and it contributed
to a reduction in poverty.^51 In France, the Jospin government rejected
the Third Way and placed more emphasis on the search for equality,
but it adopted relatively similar reforms, which made social protection
more market-oriented and, in a favorable economic context, also
helped reduce poverty.^52
With or without the label, Third Way politics defined a moderately
progressive course tinged with neoliberalism, which allowed the left
to govern and, after a time, put the question of social justice back on
the agenda. Poverty and inequality, in particular, once again became
important political preoccupations. In 2000, for instance, a European
Council dominated by social-democratic leaders adopted a new
encompassing objective that combined economic growth with social
development. The aim was to make the European Union “the most
competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world
capable of sustaining economic growth with more and better jobs
and greater social cohesion.” At the same Lisbon meeting, the Council
(^50) David Sanders, “The New Electoral Battleground,” in Kinget al. (eds.),New
51 Labour Triumphs, pp. 227–28.
Wickham-Jones, “From Reformism to Resignation and Remedialism?,”
pp. 37–38; Kitty Stewart, “Equality and Social Justice,” in Anthony Seldon and
Dennis Kavanagh (eds.),The Blair Effect, 2001–5, Cambridge University Press,
52 2005, pp. 329–30 and 334–35.
Bruno Palier,Gouverner la se ́curite ́sociale: les re ́formes du syste`me franc ̧ais de
protection sociale depuis 1945, Paris, PUF, 2002, pp. 400–06; Observatoire
national de la pauvrete ́et de l’exclusion sociale,Rapport 2003–2004, Paris, La
documentation franc ̧aise, 2004, pp. 27–37 (http://lesrapports.
ladocumentationfrancaise.fr/BRP/044000149/0000.pdf).
180 Left and Right in Global Politics