Third-Way and Third-Position

[Dogs On Acid]

What's the difference?

As I see it, the only difference is that one is completely authoritarian while the other is bourgeois democracy?

[Weezer]

Third-Way is a term cleverly disguising social democracy.

Third-Position is a term cleverly disguising fascism and nationalism.

[Hoi Polloi]

I would more say that Third Way is a shift of Social Democrats from the center-left, in conventional political position terms, to center-right (moving to a halfway point between Keynesian Capitalism and Neoliberalism). Third Way ideology is based on a repudiation of the idea of redistributing wealth from the rich to the poor in order to create a middle-class society (the goal of social-liberals), as some liberals and some conservatives met in what is called the center around the idea that using higher taxes on the rich to pay for infrastructure was a good idea and that if you did that to facilitate more trade that it would trickle down to the poor. Basically a repeat of the Whigs from the 19th century US: using federal infrastructure projects to help markets develop in the hopes that economic development will trickle down to the poor.

[Commissar Rykov]

Third-Way is a term cleverly disguising social democracy.

Third-Position is a term cleverly disguising fascism and nationalism.

^This. Third Position was a term coined after WWII to allow Fascist and Strasserist policies to continue operating without the negative stigma of using the actual name.

[syndicat]

"Third Way" was used as a term to cover the retreat of social democracy from any sort of socialist position to the adoption of neo-liberal positions. It's supposed to be a "third way" between socialism and laissez faire capitalism.

"Third Position" is also based on the sort of suspect "anti-corporate" or "anti-capitalist" elements in fascist ideology so they can say they are neither socialist nor capitalist. It's part of their rejection of a class against class framework in favor of a nationalist, corporatist framework.