HUGH LAFOLLETTE

A child as he grows older finds responsibilities thrust upon him. This is surely
not because freedom of the will has suddenly been inserted into him, but because
his assumption of them is a necessary factor in his future growth and movement.

-- John Dewey

For many people the idea that children are autonomous agents whose
autonomy the parents should respect and the state should protect is
laughable. For them such an idea is the offspring of idle academics
who never had, or at least never seriously interacted with, children.
Autonomy is the province of full-fledged rational adults, not immature
children. It is easy to see why many people embrace this view. Very
young children do not have the experience or knowledge to make
informed decisions about matters of momentous significance. How-
ever, from this fact many people infer (or talk as if they infer) that all

I wish to thank members of the philosophy department at East Tennessee State University,
members of the philosophy and religion department at the University of Northern Iowa, mem-
bers of the audience at the 1997 meeting of the Political Studies Association (U.K.), the editors
of this volume, and especially David Archard, John Hardwig, and Eva LaFollette for insightful
comments on earlier drafts of this paper.

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