Childhoods in the Liberal State

Realizing a good childhood for all children is not the sole responsibility of parents; it is dependent upon a social infrastructure that should provide the institutional conditions to enact the goods of childhood to a sufficient extent. In line with the sufficiency-oriented position we advocate, social justice for children is a requirement that liberal states must guarantee. We are therefore not concerned with equal opportunities for children to have a good childhood, or that all childhoods should be equally good, but that they are good enough. Special attention is reserved for children whose situation—relative to the aforementioned minimum standard—is not only not good enough, but proves to be particularly bad. The complex relationship between the liberal state, parents, and children, which is sometimes referred to as the ‘Bermuda triangle’ of political theory, is the subject of ongoing controversy. One finds repeated debates about how the responsibilities, rights, and duties of all parties in the triangle should be balanced (such as debates about compulsory schooling or debates about the curricular canon). In the following, we argue that this relationship can be envisioned in the form of shared responsibility, whereby we are by no means committing ourselves to a model of harmony by means of a division of labor. On the contrary, any regulation of the relationship between parents, children, and the state is associated with moral and, of course, financial costs. If one holds on to the institution of the family—which we believe one should do from a liberal perspective in the absence of viable alternatives—then compromises must be made in the realization of social justice.