Author Meets Critics: Rita Koganzon's "Liberal States, Authoritarian Families"

Session Submission Type: Author meet critics

Session Description

Must authority and modern liberalism be at odds? In her book “Liberal States, Authoritarian Families,” Rita Koganzon argues that Rawlsian liberals have misunderstood the connection between free citizenship and educational authority. Taking Arendt as her guide, Koganzon seeks to reclaim a theory of liberal education that acknowledges the important differences between the family and the state. While absolutists such as Bodin and Hobbes treated the authority of the family to be in some ways analogous with the sovereign state, early liberals like Locke and Rousseau thought a free state must accept degrees of difference and hierarchy within private relationships. Locke and Rousseau defended parental authority over children precisely because they hoped to raise future citizens capable of withstanding the influences of fashion and mass opinion.

This author-meets-critics panel assembles a group of junior and senior political theorists to discuss Koganzon’s core claims. Is it possible to reconcile the authority of adults over children with liberalism’s anti-authoritarian principles? And if so, what might this mean for the future of schooling in large democratic societies? School closures during the pandemic forced many families to reassess their educational plans and sparked serious debate over the structure of public schooling. Koganzon’s timely book highlights the extent to which major figures in early modern political thought were also concerned with the relationship between authority, education, and freethinking citizens.

Sub Unit

• Division 1: Political Thought and Philosophy

Chair

• Danielle Charette James University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Presenters

• Alexandra Oprea University at Buffalo

• Christopher Kelly Boston College

• Bryan Garsten Yale University

• Brandon Turner Clemson University

• Rita Koganzon University of North Carolina