What is the "big idea" that is the fountainhead for the "new ideas" New Democrats seek to develop? It's the "Third Way."

President Clinton talks about the "Third Way" often, as does the First Lady, who thinks it offers a formulation for a new ideology that can unite Democrats. British Prime Minister Tony Blair refers to the "Third Way" as the central principle of his "New Labour" Party.

In short, the Third Way is becoming the global generic brand name for the progressive politics of the Information Age. The term first came into use in 1990 as the DLC's shorthand for the distinctive viewpoint of New Democrats. It signaled our determination to overcome the stale left-right debate that had dominated American politics for a generation, and to modernize the Democratic Party and the public sector into instruments for addressing the very new problems facing the country in a new era.

For Democrats, the Third Way does not mean abandoning such traditional progressive principles as equal opportunity, civil rights, cultural tolerance, an active public sector, a sense of collective responsibility for our individual destinies, or a special commitment to Americans in need. It does mean rethinking how we apply these principles, just as progressives rethought public policies at other great turning points in our history like the Industrial Revolution, the Great Depression, and the Civil Rights Movement. And it does mean abandoning the recent tendency of traditional liberals to place defense or expansion of government programs at the top of their agenda, even if they no longer promote the goals they were originally designed to achieve or reflect the values they were originally intended to vindicate.

While challenging the left to adjust to changing times, the Third Way also creates a new and more vigorous intellectual and political competition for the right. For decades, political conservatives have prospered simply by critiquing the big government excesses and cultural eccentricities of traditional liberals. By taking away these easy targets, the "Third Way" forces conservatives to try to articulate a positive governing agenda, which they are currently incompetent to offer with any degree of unity or coherence.

Most broadly, the Third Way represents an acceptance of two verdicts of history that many on the Left have been slow to acknowledge. First, capitalism is the best economic system yet devised for creating growth and efficiently allocating resources, and second, two-parent families nurturing such values as faith, work, personal responsibility, civility, and openness to new ideas are the best social unit yet devised for raising children.

But at the same time, the Third Way represents a rejection of the right's tendency to turn capitalism into a religion, confusing means with ends, and abandoning the public responsibility to shape market forces to produce broad-based economic and social progress. It also means rejecting the right's reluctance to support families and reinforce mainstream values with public resources that give them the tools they need to do what they do best: create opportunity, instill responsibility, and embody community.

Put it all together, and you have a new political ideology that uses market means to pursue public goals; that combines fidelity to traditional values with a fearless determination to shape rapid economic and technological change; and that insists on organizing public resources for the common good while recognizing the increasing impotence of large, centralized bureaucracies and the increasing importance of self-governing individuals and community institutions. That means tough environmental standards met through market-based innovations like emissions trading. That means replacing the welfare system with a competitive employment system. That means saving public education through choice, competition, and accountability for measurable results. That means opening global trade while "expanding the winner's circle" of Americans prepared with skills to participate in the blessings of economic growth. That means every "idea of the week" we have promoted in the DLC Update and many more to come.

The Third Way is important not just to ideologues and intellectuals, but to elected officials, political activists, and citizens. It shows that the "centrist" politics of New Democrats is not located in the mushy middle of the old political spectrum, aimed at split-the-difference compromises between liberals and conservatives in their endless, and often pointless, battles over funding levels for existing government programs, and their common efforts to reward constituency groups with patronage favors and public subsidies. And it vindicates the stubborn desire of people -- not just in America but in Europe, Latin American and Australia -- exhibited in serial rejections of traditional political parties, for a public philosophy that transcends the old left-right choices a stubborn desire for "a Third Way."

For a clear and thorough articulation of the Third Way, read the New Progressive Declaration.