Liberalism’s Child Problem

Liberal political theory treats persons as equal moral units but routinely excludes children from full rights because of dependency and parental authority. Modern social changes (longer dependency, reduced unsupervised play, credentialized childhood) have increased that exclusion’s political salience, turning parenting into a national culture‑war axis with implications for schooling, health rights, and civic formation. — Reframing childhood as a structural policy question forces rethinking education, welfare, and family law so that liberal commitments to personhood and equality are reconciled with practical dependency and parental rights.