ABSTRACT
This chapter explains that, with respect to families and their place in relation to the basic structure, aspects of families should be construed as part of the basic structure and hence directly subject to principles of political justice. Understanding the basic structure in this way has two noteworthy implications. First, it explains how political liberalism can realize gender equality among citizens, both within marriages and throughout society. Second, it delineates the appropriate scope of parents’ authority to raise their children in accordance with their comprehensive doctrines and conceptions of the good. Political liberalism holds that most aspects of families should be free from direct coercive political regulation. The basic structure, moreover, must be regulated and maintained by means of coercive political power. The chapter suggests that securing adequate leisure time for persons throughout their lives—including during their childhoods—can indirectly, but nonetheless effectively, facilitate the realization of many childhood goods for persons.
