The Third Way was a movement of the early to mid-nineties widely considered to be at the heart of the New Labour strategy that brought the Party to power in 1997. As the Party's popularity wanes after three historic victories,several questions can now be asked: What was the Third Way and how does it compare with the New Liberalism from which it drew inspiration?How did it develop as both a political ideology and an electoral strategy? Most importantly, what are the prospects for progressive politics at the end of this second era of globalisation? This book explains the Third Way as part of a wider analysis of the development of basic economic, political and social structures of the state. Whereas the Labour Party offered globalisation as the justification for a 'new politics', Holmes counters that the systemic pressure created by globalisation produced a shift in the state from one stage in its development to the next. Progressive political parties in the United Kingdom, United States and elsewhere were compelled to create a plausible ideological narrative and political explanation to their electorates. Holmes offers an integrated explanation as to the effects of globalisation and the ways in which it simultaneously changed the form of the state as well as domestic democratic politics around the world. As we come to the end of the second era of globalisation, it is a clarion call to heed the warnings of the first.