Autonomy-Based Liberalism and State Support for Art: An Antiperfectionist Justification

Abstract

In this concluding chapter of the first part, an alternative, and antiperfectionist, justification for state support for art (and other perfectionist goods) is proposed: if subsidizing perfectionist goods facilitates the amount of valuable options to choose from and leads to more equality at the level of making autonomous choices (equality of autonomy), then state support can be allowed. However, given the fact that there is no consensus among citizens about the value of particular options, and given the fact that the free market can (and in an ideal world should) suffice in order to guarantee a sufficient range of valuable options for all citizens, state support for these options should not be a general rule, but it should rather be the exception. Furthermore, it will be argued that support is only legitimate and reconcilable with autonomy-based liberalism when certain criteria have been met.