Children, Family and the State
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Children, Family and the State David William Archard Ashgate Publishing Limited, Aldershot, 2003, 224pp. ISBN: 0 7546 0555 8. Contemporary Political Theory (2004) 3, 231–233. doi:10.1057/palgrave.cpt.9300128
This latest book from David Archard begins with a compelling introduction. It outlines the key questions for each of its chapters on children, the family and the state: Do children have all or some of the rights that adults have? What is a family, do parents have rights over their children and are families ‘just’? What is the proper balance between the interests of the child, the parent and the state? Useful for both novice and experienced readers in this area, the introduction succinctly describes the growing philosophical interest in childhood, children and the family: that is, children represent an interesting ‘test case’ for who are rights-holders; the growing attention to the civic education of children into future citizens; the concern that families are an obstacle to justice; and philosophers’ interests in understanding societal changes, including substantial family changes and new reproductive technology. The first chapter, on children, introduces the ‘will’ and ‘interest’ theories of rights and then reviews both significant child liberationists and those who argue for alternatives to children’s rights. The later half of the chapter discusses two major principles of children’s rights, the best interests principle and the right to be heard. Both discussions cover the ground well philosophically; their arguments are also useful for those engaged in policy and practice, in recognizing the limits of defining what are children’s ‘best interests’, and that the right to be heard does not mean children have a right to choose but to have their views considered alongside others. The chapter on family begins with a detailed consideration of the definition of a family, taking into account changing views on families, societal trends and critiques. The chapter recognizes feminist critiques of the family; it would have been interesting to read Archard’s reflections on the latest feminist theorizations around the ethic of care and children’s rights (as, for example, so provocatively taken forward by Arneil (2002) in a recent edited collection by Archard) or on children’s contributions to family decisions (see, for example, Smart et al., 2001). Foundational to the book’s arguments on parental responsibilities and limitations of the state’s intervention, the family chapter concludes that children are best brought up in families. Archard strongly argues that parents do not have rights over children because parents ‘own’ children or because children are extensions of their parents. Instead, parents
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have responsibilities to care for their children. Archard introduces the concept of a ‘shared life claim’, which recognizes that an important part of a family’s shared activities may be parents and children sharing many of the same values and beliefs. Finally, Archard concludes that full justice, in Rawlsian
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