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Family Matters: Theorizing the Family-State Relationship in Liberal Democratic Theory
Unformatted Document Text:  Family Matters: Theorizing the Family-State Relationship in Liberal Democratic Theory What role, if any, should the state play in relationships between adults, or what might be called “horizontal relationships.”? 1 Should the state distance itself from them on the rationale that adults should be left to order their own relationships? Or does the state still have some role to play? And, assuming that the state does have some role, should it treat all such relationships the same way, or may it favor some over others? I. Theoretical Positions To help think through these questions, I use the work of Martha Fineman and William Galston as interlocutors. The two theorists have almost diametrically opposed perspectives on these issues. Fineman argues that the state has no business with respect to relationships between able adults, and should instead invest its efforts in supporting caretaker-dependent relationships. In arguing that the state should eliminate marriage as a legal status, she also receives support from queer theorists, including Michael Warner. Galston, meanwhile, argues that the liberal state should privilege marriage and two- parent families because they provide the best environment in which to raise children and to contribute to a stable, well-ordered polity. In doing so, his work bears a strong similarity to the past work of conservative commentators, including Bruce Hafen. In my view, each of these positions focuses on important but limited principles to which liberalism should attend. A robust liberalism must take account of, and seek to ameliorate, the tension between them. A. Fineman and Warner—The Case Against Marriage 1 This paper is a chapter drawn from a draft of the book on which I am now working. In the previous chapter, I considered the state’s role with respect to what might be called “vertical relationships,” in which one member is a caretaker and the other a dependent, such as the relationship between a parent a young child, or an adult child and an aging parent. Law School User Page 1 8/23/2005

Authors: Eichner, Maxine.
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Family Matters: Theorizing the Family-State Relationship in Liberal Democratic Theory
What role, if any, should the state play in relationships between adults, or what
might be called “horizontal relationships.”?
Should the state distance itself from them
on the rationale that adults should be left to order their own relationships? Or does the
state still have some role to play? And, assuming that the state does have some role,
should it treat all such relationships the same way, or may it favor some over others?
I. Theoretical Positions
To help think through these questions, I use the work of Martha Fineman and
William Galston as interlocutors. The two theorists have almost diametrically opposed
perspectives on these issues. Fineman argues that the state has no business with respect
to relationships between able adults, and should instead invest its efforts in supporting
caretaker-dependent relationships. In arguing that the state should eliminate marriage as
a legal status, she also receives support from queer theorists, including Michael Warner.
Galston, meanwhile, argues that the liberal state should privilege marriage and two-
parent families because they provide the best environment in which to raise children and
to contribute to a stable, well-ordered polity. In doing so, his work bears a strong
similarity to the past work of conservative commentators, including Bruce Hafen.
In my view, each of these positions focuses on important but limited principles to
which liberalism should attend. A robust liberalism must take account of, and seek to
ameliorate, the tension between them.
A. Fineman and Warner—The Case Against Marriage
1
This paper is a chapter drawn from a draft of the book on which I am now working. In
the previous chapter, I considered the state’s role with respect to what might be called
“vertical relationships,” in which one member is a caretaker and the other a dependent,
such as the relationship between a parent a young child, or an adult child and an aging
parent.
Law School User
Page 1
8/23/2005


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