[CTRL] World Leaders Promote 'Third Way' for New Century

[Shane A. Saylor, Eccentric Bard]

 -Caveat Lector-

World Leaders Promote 'Third Way' for New Century

Seek path between welfare state, unbridled capitalism


FLORENCE, Italy (AP) -- Six like-minded world leaders gathered in an ornate
Renaissance palace on Sunday and explored how best to spread the expected
benefits of the 21st century's global economy and technological
advancements.

"All of us are trying to manage the consequences of change," said British
Prime Minister Tony Blair.

The six -- Blair, U.S. President Bill Clinton, French Prime Minister Lionel
Jospin, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, Italian Premier Massimo D'Alema
and Brazilian President Fernando Enrique Cardoso -- are members of the
"Third Way" club.

The Third Way is a hot new set of ideas -- still in flux -- about how to
achieve economic growth along with social fairness. It seeks a path between
the old welfare state and survival-of-the-fittest capitalism.

The Florence meeting, "Progressive Governance in the 21st Century," was a
recognition that global politics can go hand-in-hand with a global
economy -- and win elections. Leftists are in power in 11 of 15 European
nations and a Democrat is in the White House -- the first generation of
post-World War II and post-Cold War leaders.

Clinton stresses practical politics
"At a certain level this is about politics," Clinton said. "What we want to
do is find a way to first explain the world we live in to the people we
represent and the people we want to reach and then to propose a course of
action ... so that elections will be won and decisions will be implemented."

The meeting occurred in the magnificent Palazzo Vecchio in the heart of
Florence, amid tapestries and frescoes that once delighted the eyes of the
likes of Machiavelli and the Medicis.

Jospin of France used the forum to express Western Europe's universal
condemnation of capital punishment, which is still practiced in the United
States.

"I would like to see capital punishment suppressed in all democracies,"
Jospin said.

Jospin: Maintain national identity
The politics and problems of each of the countries represented at the
conference vary, but all are grappling with issues like economic stability,
welfare reform and education.

Globalization must not pose a threat to the traditional nation-state, said
Jospin. "We want to place France within the universal current of modernity
without allowing France to lose its identity."

Jospin also said government must exercise some controls over the global
market, while Blair insisted that regulations should not "slow the dynamism"
of the market.

"Anglo-Saxon culture is resistant to new regulations," quipped D'Alema,
Italy's premier.

Blair praised the meeting as a transatlantic dialogue that will help each
leader explain policies that deviate from the old way of government
programs. "That's our mantra, that's our pitch," he added.

Said Schroeder of Germany: "Budget discipline is not a conservative system."

Clinton spoke of the "digital divide" that separates rich from poor and said
Internet access should be as common as the telephone, while Cardoso of
Brazil emphasized the special needs of developing countries.

"In a world in which we have the computer and the Internet, it is not
impossible to devise institutions to reduce poverty," Cardoso said.

Continuing his European tour, Clinton was scheduled to arrive in Bulgaria
late Sunday.

--
Life is learning to live with us. Now we must learn to live with life.
-- Shane A. Saylor, 11.99

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