The making of harold Macmillan’s third way in interwar Britain (1924-1935)

Abstract

The article explores Harold Macmillan’s early thought during the interwar years, focusing on his efforts to outline a corporatist, non-fascist third way based on industrial self-government. After volunteering in the Great War, Macmillan joined the Conservative Party and won a seat in the House of Commons in 1924 for the depressed northern constituency of Stockton-on-Tees. After his election, Macmillan’s rationale was to reject both the current orthodox capitalist system and the socialist alternative, envisaging a planned society based on industrial self-government ruled by economic organisations. Claiming the necessity of building a harmoniously ordered society in order to overcome the social conflict, Macmillan efforts were directed to propose non-socialist, conservative corporatist legislation, eventually discussed in Parliament between 1934 and 1935.