Many commentators have noted the intellectual parallels between New Labour and New Liberalism without spelling them out in much detail. This article highlights these parallels through comparing the thoughts of J. A. Hobson, a key thinker within New Liberalism and British social democracy, and Anthony Giddens, the most prominent ‘Third Way’ thinker. Not only were there striking and surprising similarities, but their differences raise questions about how the ‘left-of-centre’ political project realises its normative commitments within a changing capitalist world.
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