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IN THIS ARTICLE PATRICK NEAL EXAMINES RONALD DWORKIN'S DEFENSE OF LIBERALISM IN TERMS OF GOVERNMENTAL NEUTRALITY ON THE SUBJECT OF WHAT THE GOOD LIFE IS. HE ARGUES THAT NO GOVERNMENT CAN PRACTICE SUCH NEUTRALITY AND, THEN, GOES ON TO SUGGEST HOW A MORE VIABLE DEFENSE OF LIBERALISM MIGHT BE DEVELOPED.

Friends and foes of liberal neutrality assume that neutrality presupposes pluralism. On this view, the state should be neutral among the many permissible conceptions of the individual good that citizens affirm. I argue that neutrality need not be construed as a response to pluralism. I focus on the case of specifically religious neutrality and argue that it can be an appropriate political response to what I call "the fact of religious hegemony," which is a social scenario in which a particular religion is unanimously recognized as dominant. Religious neutrality, in this kind of context, requires the state to avoid all religious words and symbols that can be taken as an expression of endorsement or criticism of religion. I take this conception of religious neutrality from both political history and current political practice and discourse. Neutrality was originally conceived of as a proper political response in contexts of religious hegemony both in France and in Mexico. Today, and despite the growth of religious pluralism, this conception continues to be a live political posture in the places where it first originated. I call it "neutrality as independence from religion" and argue that it differs from liberal neutrality in crucial respects.

As a member of the Common Market and a nonparticipant in NATO.

Sweden's recent record of peaceful external relations is often contrasted with the costly and, in the end, futile attempts during earlier centuries to play power politics through wars and alliances. This experience has served to underline the importance of national defense for a credible neutrality posture. Defense expenditures are considerable. The comprehensive nature of national defense and the economic dimension of security have been stressed. Sweden shares strong economic links with the Western economies. As a result of affluence throughout the postwar era and the recognition of the importance of the Western economic channels for this prosperity, official neutrality has interfered only marginally with the private pursuit of commerce and finance. This liberal attitude toward international exchanges has included items of strategic significance, such as advanced technology, arms, and ammunition. Sweden shares with other Nordic nations an inclination for marked visibility in global issues and arenas, hoping to promote international change both in North-South issues and in East-West negotiations. The classic definition of the Swedish foreign policy doctine is freedom from alliances in peace aiming for neutrality in war.

In May 2009, Taiwan took a significant step in building a modern bureaucracy by passing a statute to create a civil service neutrality system after two decades of democratization. But its agenda for building a civil service neutrality system was not modeled on that of the Western democracies. Taiwan had its own distinct agenda and followed its own path toward civil service neutrality that was adapted to the demands of a polity transformed from a party-state regime. In the case of Taiwan, the neutrality mechanism was governed by the concept of "administrative neutrality" rather than the more common concept of "political neutrality." This paper reviews and makes sense of the evolution of this concept and the neutrality system in Taiwan, and joins the debate of relevance of politics-administration dichotomy. Adapted from the source document.