  Many contemporary writers on politics reject perfectionism and hold that the state should be neutral among rival understandings of the good (Dworkin 1978; Ackerman 1980; Larmore 1987; Rawls 1993). The principle of state neutrality, as it can be called, articulates a principled constraint on permissible or legitimate state action. The constraint can, and has been, formulated in different  ways.[6] Three formulations of the constraint have attracted support of late, and can be mentioned briefly  here.[7]