Third Ways Out of the Crisis of Liberalism: Moderation and Radicalism in Germany, 1880-1950

Abstract

Ido de Haan argues that at the end of the nineteenth century, debates about the middle way shifted ground from the constitutional and moral foundation of post-Revolutionary politics, to the preconditions of a stable socio-economic order. Searching for a middle way between ideological extremes, German economists and sociologist aimed to identify a ‘third way’ as an alternative to both unrestrained capitalism and oppressive socialism. In many ways, the varieties of new and neoliberalism are continuation of the politics of moderation. Yet the search for a middle ground did not always lead to political moderation: third ways could also lead to the radical politics of the Third Reich.