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The ideal of the liberal state presupposes a critical mass of convinced liberals among its citizens; absent such a mass, the liberal state will sometimes be forced to take precisely the kind of measures that in any other circumstance it is most committed to resist. In an imperfect world, a liberal state needs to create liberals and to prevent illiberal ideologies from doing severe harm to citizens. There are a variety of ways to do this, some more unappetizing than others to liberals. If the more congenial approaches are incapable of doing the job, then the less attractive ones cannot be rules out.

Most congenial of all, of course, is the possibility that a liberal regime will promote liberal dispositions among the citizens automatically….

Somewhat more suspect, perhaps, is the liberal state's forthrightly proclaiming its partisanship for liberal dispositions and views….

Most suspect still is for the state to use its coercive power over adults in order to inculcate liberal ideals in them….

Still worse, from a liberal perspective, is for the state to censor speech on the basis of its viewpoint, even if such censorship is undertaken only in those places, such as the workplace, where it is doing the most harm.…

Finally, a state dedicated to the eradication of illiberal ideologies could simply prohibit their dissemination altogether.