Marriage as public good

Here is a book that looks to be worth reading: The Meaning of Marriage: Family, State, Market, and Morals, edited by Robert P. George and Jean Bethke Elshtain. Jennifer Roback Morse's essay looks especially good, as she argues that the weakening of marriage to a mere private contract began already some 40 years ago with the advent of no-fault divorce. Her analysis of how the attenuation of so basic an institution has led to an expansion of the welfare state accords rather well with my own diagnosis of the choice enhancement state, the 5th historic stage in the development of liberalism.