Liberal-democratic states should privilege parental efforts to instil identities and values

Abstract

Liberal-democratic states’ commitments to equality and personal autonomy have always proven problematic with respect to state regulation of relations between parents and children. In the parental authority literature, positions have varied from invoking children’s interests to argue for limitations on parental efforts to instil identities and values to invoking parental rights to justify state privileging of such efforts. This article argues that liberal-democratic states should privilege parental efforts to raise their children to share their identities and values. Its approach is distinctive in two ways: (1) it engages in interdisciplinary reflection upon selected findings in psychological literature on immigrant youth, acculturation and identity development to assess philosophical arguments about parental authority; and (2) it argues that children’s, and not parental, interests should be viewed as the primary basis for parental rights to instil identities and values. Ultimately, the article argues, parental authority to instil identities and values is justified by children’s interests in psychological wellbeing and personal autonomy.