Policy Forum: Kids Are Not Boats

The central argument of George Will’s book Statecraft as Soulcraft: What Government Does1 is that governments by their very nature affect not only the external
behaviour but also the “inner life” of citizens. To put it another way, government
cannot be neutral on matters of social values. Or, as Brian Lee Crowley asks, “What
do governments have to do with the character of the people who live under them?”2