Radical centrism
For example, futurist Marilyn Ferguson added a holistic dimension to the concept when she said: "[The] Radical Center ... is not neutral, not middle-of-the-road, but a view of the whole road".
[39] For Giddens, an advisor to former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and for many other European political actors, the Third Way is a reconstituted form of social democracy.
[27] Radical centrists have expressed dismay with what they see as "split[ting] the difference",[34] "triangulation"[27][45] and other supposed practices of what some of them call the "mushy middle".
[48][49] These books attempted to take the concept of radical centrism beyond the stage of "cautious gestures"[50] and journalistic observation and define it as a political philosophy.
[5][26] The authors came to their task from diverse political backgrounds: Avlon had been a speechwriter for New York Republican Mayor Rudolph Giuliani;[51] Miller had been a business consultant before serving in President Bill Clinton's budget office;[52] Lind had been an exponent of Harry Truman-style "national liberalism";[53] Halstead had run a think tank called Redefining Progress;[54] and Satin had co-drafted the U.S. Green Party's foundational political statement, "Ten Key Values".
New America was started by authors Ted Halstead and Michael Lind, as well as two others, to bring radical centrist ideas to Washington, D.C. journalists and policy researchers.
"Radix: Think Tank for the Radical Centre" was established in London in 2016; its initial board of trustees included former Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg.
[98] Writing in The Guardian, Radix policy director David Boyle called for "big, radical ideas" that could break with both trickle-down conservatism and backward-looking socialism.
[99] In 2018, a policy document released by the then four-year-old Niskanen Center of Washington, D.C. was characterized as a "manifesto for radical centrism" by Big Think writer Paul Ratner.
[100] According to Ratner, the document – signed by some of Niskanen's executives and policy analysts – is an attempt to "incorporate rival ideological positions into a way forward" for America.
In the United States, for example, The Washington Monthly was started by early radical centrist thinker Charles Peters[101][102][nb 11] and many large-circulation magazines publish articles by New America fellows.
[104] Columnists who have written from a radical centrist perspective include John Avlon,[105] Thomas Friedman,[106] Joe Klein,[107] and Matthew Miller.
An editorial ("leader") in 2012 declared in bolded type: "A new form of radical centrist politics is needed to tackle inequality without hurting economic growth".
The Centre Party's former chairmen and Finland's former Prime Ministers, Juha Sipilä and Matti Vanhanen as well as former President Urho Kekkonen have been viewed as radical centrists.
[142] He points to Macron's declaration that he is "neither left nor right", and to his support for policies, such as public-sector austerity and major environmental investments [citation needed], that traditional political parties might find contradictory.
His article "On New and Radical Centrism" argued that the Greens did relatively well in the 2017 German federal election not only because of their stance against the "system" but also as a result of "a more centrist, socio-liberal, pro-European constituency that felt alienated by the power-sharing cartel" of the larger parties.
[145] In 2013, Yossi Klein Halevi – author of books addressing Israelis and Palestinians alike[146][147] – explained why he voted for Lapid, saying, in part: He emerged as the voice of middle class disaffection, yet included in his [party] list two Ethiopians, representatives of one of the country's poorest constituencies.
[157] TOP advocates for evidence-based policy on a universal basic income,[158] legalised cannabis,[159] and putting a stop to the New Zealand housing crisis.
In 2010, for example, The New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman called for "a Tea Party of the radical center", an organized national pressure group.
[186] Friedman later co-wrote a book with scholar Michael Mandelbaum discussing key issues in American society and calling for an explicitly radical centrist politics and program to deal with them.
[192] In his book The Price of Civilization (2011), Columbia University economist Jeffrey Sachs called for the creation of a third U.S. party, an "Alliance for the Radical Center".
[196] By the mid-2010s, several exponents of radical centrism had run, albeit unsuccessfully, for seats in the United States Congress, including Matthew Miller in California[197] and Dave Anderson in Maryland.
[201] The Forward Party, a political action committee created by former presidential candidate Andrew Yang in October 2021, was critically described as a radical centrist movement by the American socialist magazine, Jacobin.
[208] He faults Matthew Miller's version of radical centrism for offering "feeble" policy solutions and indulging in wishful thinking about the motives of the political right.
[26] According to Ed Kilgore, the policy director of the Democratic Leadership Council, Mark Satin's Radical Middle book "ultimately places him in the sturdy tradition of 'idealistic' American reformers who think smart and principled people unencumbered by political constraints can change everything".
[213] In 2012, conservative Knesset member Tzipi Hotovely criticized Israel's radical center for lacking such attributes as courage, decisiveness, and realistic thinking.
[9] The specific third-party vehicle favored by many U.S. radical centrists in 2012 – Americans Elect[215] – was criticized as an "elite-driven party"[9] supported by a "dubious group of Wall Street multi-millionaires".
[208] After spending time with a variety of radical centrists, Alec MacGillis of The New Republic concluded that their perspectives are so disparate that they could never come together to build a viable political organization.
[63][222] Onward Christian Athletes author Tom Krattenmaker speaks of the radical center as that (metaphoric) space where such dialogue and innovation can occur.
[10] Similarly, The Lipstick Proviso: Women, Sex, and Power in the Real World author Karen Lehrman Bloch speaks of the radical middle as a "common ground" where left and right can "nurture a saner society".
