Untying the Knot: Marriage, the State, and the Case for Their Divorce

by Tamara Metz

Marriage is at the center of one of today's fiercest political debates. Activists argue about how to define it, judges and legislators decide who should benefit from it, and scholars consider how the state should protect those who are denied it. Few, however, ask whether the state should have anything to do with marriage in the first place. In Untying the Knot , Tamara Metz addresses this crucial question, making a powerful argument that marriage, like religion, should be separated from the state. Rather than defining or conferring marriage, or relying on it to achieve legitimate public welfare goals, the state should create a narrow legal status that supports all intimate caregiving unions. Marriage itself should be bestowed by those best suited to give it the necessary ethical authority--religious groups and other kinds of communities. Divorcing the state from marriage is dictated by nothing less than basic commitments to freedom and equality.


Tracing confusions about marriage to tensions at the heart of liberalism, Untying the Knot clarifies today's debates about marriage by identifying and explaining assumptions hidden in widely held positions and common practices. It shows that, as long as marriage and the state are linked, marriage will be a threat to liberalism and the state will be a threat to marriage. An important and timely rethinking of the relationship between marriage and the state, Untying the Knot will interest political theorists, legal scholars, policymakers, sociologists, and anyone else who cares about the fate of marriage or liberalism.

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction, Social Justice

216 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2010

Reviews

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

The moral foundation of classical liberalism is personal liberty protected by limited state authority intended primarily to secure rule of law. This philosophy underpins the very basis of modern society and provided the foundation for most of the western world's political institutions. The institutions of marriage and the family precede this worldview, however, and exist alongside and within the state. This juxtaposition is awkward and has led to some of the most challenging tensions in the modern era.

Marriage is a protected institution of the modern state. Governments define what constitutes marriage, authorize privileges to its adherents, and are the final arbiters in its dissolution. This requires state actors to act in ethical and moral judgment of personal relationships of its citizens. This flies in the very face of the envisioned constraints of classical liberalism on state authority, yet even many of the founders of liberalism skirted this contradiction. Marriage has simply been taken for granted in our political architecture, and most have just shrugged their shoulders and tried to manage the tension as best as possible.

Metz tackles this controversy with a more lucid and articulate argument than I have encountered anywhere else. Drawing deeply from political philosophy and the growing body of legal literature on marriage, she demonstrates how the current arrangement between marriage and the modern state weakens both. Part of the strength of her argument is how grounded it is within a classical liberal worldview that appeals to modern conservatives and progressives alike. The state should promote equality and not interfere in the realm of personal beliefs and activities whenever possible. State involvement in marriage violates these norms, ensconcing in law unequal power dynamics between genders, and establishing itself as the ethical authority in determining what constitutes marriage, a term that is imbued with personal meaning. In short, the state is framing what people can think about a very important personal, moral, and intimate relationship.

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