Forced Labour for Liberals: Mandatory Service, Social Equality, and Freedom of Occupation

In recent years, many political philosophers have made the case for thinking that achieving a fully just society will require some variety of mandatory civilian service. However, there is widespread agreement that mandatory service schemes are in significant tension with commitments to freedom of occupation. Correspondingly, support for mandatory service schemes is also taken to be in deep tension with the liberal tradition, with its emphasis on the fundamental importance of protecting basic liberties. The purpose of this article is to argue that there is far less tension between mandatory service schemes and freedom of occupation than this widely accepted picture supposes. Though liberalism does contain the resources to mount a case against mandatory service in certain circumstances, that case will not be a straightforward matter of principle, but rather a complex matter of balancing difficult empirical considerations. Moreover, liberalism may, in some circumstances, actually be committed to some forms of moderate mandatory service, not in spite of but, in part, because of its commitment to the special status of liberty.