Conscription for Occupational Freedom: The Liberal Case for Compelling Essential Rote Work

Work that produces necessary goods and services often imposes significant harm on the workers that perform it. Philosopher Jan Kandiyali calls this socially necessary, but harmful work burdensome work and proposes that all members of a society share this labor. However, this proposal seems to run afoul of liberal commitments to occupational freedom. I identify a particular kind of burdensome work that is especially well-suited to be shared which I call essential rote work (ERW), and I advance a novel argument that liberal states are authorized to compel sharing ERW due to the interest that liberal states have in protecting citizens' autonomy. To justify the permissibility of compelled ERW, I propose and evaluate two schemes of compelled ERW against existing forms of compulsory work in liberal societies.