ABSTRACT

Let’s begin by clarifying what it is that divides ‘liberals’ and ‘authoritarians’.

Should children and young people be free to do just whatever they want? Of course not. Outside of a few hippy communes, no one believes children, or adults for that matter, should be given complete freedom of action. Everyone thinks there should be at least some rules. Just how restrictive these rules are, and just how aggressively they should be enforced, is one of the issues that divides ‘liberals’ and ‘authoritarians’. Many believe that, particularly over the last 50 years or so, we’ve moved too far up the liberal end of the scale. We’ve become excessively permissive. The time has come to redress the balance – to move back in the authoritarian direction.They may be right about that.