ABSTRACT
In this chapter, I outline the political morality of a liberalism based on the commitment to the value of autonomy described and justifi ed in the previous chapters. The ‘political morality’ of a theory is the account of what values ought to inform political action (which, for convenience, I shall take to mean actions performed by states or other institutions with power) and provide a standard in respect of which those actions should be assessed. Political morality (in this sense) is often contrasted with a theory of institutions, which takes our political morality, and explains what institutions are required (or recommended) to promote that morality, or prohibited to protect it.1 I shall here deal only occasionally with the theory of institutions, but my conclusions have suffi cient practical bite that they might be used to develop such a theory in greater depth.
