According to the neutrality thesis, in designing state policies governments should not allow themselves to be informed by any particular conceptions of the good life. The aim of this book is to contribute to the debate about this thesis in two specific ways. Firstly, the limits of acceptable state perfectionism are examined, not on a general level but by reference to some particular concerns of government policy; transgenic animals, future generations, the promotion of the arts, minority cultures, the allocation of scarce health care resources, the integration of mentally handicapped people into the community, and the expression of national identities. Secondly, the book as a whole evaluates the argument that the government has a special task to produce or to maintain intrinsically collective aspects of the good life, because these are to be seen as public goods.

Preface; G. den Hartogh. Introduction; G. den Hartogh. Transgenic Animals and Liberal Democracy: The Dutch Case; W. Achterberg. Sustainability and the Principle of Neutrality; H.Ph. Visser t Hooft. Liberal Morality and the Extinction of Cultures; A.W. Musschenga. The Liberal Arts: Should a Liberal State Support the Arts? C.W. Maris. Priorities in Collective Health Care Provision: Why the Search for Criteria Failed; G. den Hartogh. Integration, Community and Neutrality: Integrating the Mentally Disabled as an Interdependent Public Good; J.S. Reinders. The Paradox of Liberal Nationalism; F. Jacobs. Bibliography. Index of Subjects. Contributors.