This text examines the relationship between Anthony Giddens' social theory and the Third Way program, a moment when the author became a British New Labour intellectual. The aim is to show that, in building such program, the main elements for the critique of "orthodox democratic politics" are founded on that social theory. The globalization process is seen by the author as a new model of social integration, whose bonds go well beyond traditional borders of communities and nations, carrying a new sense of social and political organization that challenges current generations to rethink the very roots of democratic experience. That is the meaning of the Third Way program as well as that of Giddens' social theory. In a more general dimension, it should be noted that both the theory and its political program are outlined within the trend that seems to dominate the current scene, that is to say, the perception of a new sociological environment in which market induction is dominant as an ethical-political center from which an encompassing redefinition of social, political and economic relations is processed both locally and globally.
social ontology; sociological theory; globalization; detraditionalization; third way