ABSTRACT
The phrase ‘neutral state* is one that occurs most commonly in the context of international disputes. A neutral state is one that refrains from taking sides in an international conflict. However, within liberal political theory, the phrase ‘neutral state’ has come to describe not the external posture of a state but an idea of what its internal arrangements should be. A neutral state is one that deals impartially with its citizens and which remains neutral on the issue of what sort of lives they should lead. Those who endorse the idea of the neutral state hold that it is not the function of the state to impose the pursuit of any particular set of ends upon its citizens. Rather the state should leave its citizens to set their own goals, to shape their own lives, and should confine itself to establishing arrangements which allow each citizen to pursue his own goals as he sees fit - consistent with every other citizen’s being able to do the same.
