John stuart mill on government. Considerations on Representative Government, by John Stuart Mill 2022-11-07

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John Stuart Mill was a 19th century British philosopher and political economist who is best known for his work on the concept of liberty. In his book, "On Liberty," Mill argued that individual freedom is essential for the development of human potential and for the overall well-being of society.

One of the key themes of Mill's philosophy is the idea that government should be limited in its power and should not interfere in the lives of individuals unless it is necessary to prevent harm to others. Mill believed that individuals are best suited to make decisions about their own lives, and that the role of government should be to create a framework within which individuals can live their lives freely and pursue their own goals.

Mill argued that government should not be involved in regulating personal behavior or personal beliefs, as long as those beliefs and behaviors do not harm others. He believed that people should be free to think, speak, and act as they see fit, as long as they do not infringe on the rights of others. This view is known as "classical liberalism," and it has had a significant influence on modern liberal democracies.

In addition to his ideas about individual liberty, Mill also believed that government should promote social justice and equality. He argued that government has a responsibility to ensure that all members of society have access to education, healthcare, and other basic necessities. He believed that government should work to reduce poverty and address issues of inequality in order to create a more just and fair society.

Overall, Mill's ideas about government and liberty continue to be influential today. His belief in the importance of individual freedom and his call for limited government intervention have shaped modern liberal democratic societies and continue to inform debates about the role of government in society.

John Stuart Mill: Bio, Life and Political Ideas

john stuart mill on government

Suppression of opinion could not earn the approval of Mill and so he thought it quite unjustified. These are good reasons for remonstrating with him, or reasoning with him, or persuading him, or entreating him, but not for compelling him or visiting him with any evil in case he do otherwise. But he gives no reason for thinking that women should have families or that, if they do, they, rather than their husbands, should be responsible for matters domestic. To justify that, the conduct from which it is desired to deter him must be calculated to produce evil to someone else. First, we should note that Mill does not defend liberty per se, but only certain basic liberties. He recognizes that they are distinct, but says that desire is our only proof of desirability IV 3. Notwithstanding the defects of the social system and moral ideas of antiquity, the practice of the dicastery and the ecclesia raised the intellectual standard of an average Athenian citizen far beyond any thing of which there is yet an example in any other mass of men, ancient or modern.

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Considerations on Representative Government by John Stuart Mill

john stuart mill on government

Even if one were to imagine that they possessed the same knowledge as the actors in the different corners of the division of labor, those representatives of the government would never have the same incentive to use that knowledge as productively and profitably as the separate individuals in the market arena. Government, no doubt, would soon be cut down to a far more limited and less intrusive size. If we except the few families or connections of whom official employment lies directly in the way, Englishmen's views of advancement in life take an altogether different direction—that of success in business or in a profession. The Roman government partook more of the character of an open aristocracy like our own. In the fifties there was WWII, sixties there was the Vietnam Conflict, eighties there was the Cold War and today there is the War on Terror.

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JOHN STUART MILL ON GOVERNMENT INTERVENTION on JSTOR

john stuart mill on government

The intermediate body, moreover, is, in the natural course of things, chiefly composed of persons who have acquired professional knowledge of this part of their country's concerns; who have been trained to it in the place itself, and have made its administration the main occupation of their lives. Let us call them in brief general terms laborers on the one hand, employers of labor on the other; including, however, along with employers of labor not only retired capitalists and the possessors of inherited wealth, but all that highly paid description of laborers such as the professions whose education and way of life assimilate them with the rich, and whose prospect and ambition it is to raise themselves into that class. Whereas HP1 justifies intervention only when the target herself would be the cause of harm to others, HP2 would justify intervention to prevent harm to others, whether that harm would be caused by the target or in some other way. According to them, forms of government are not a matter of choice. It is the characteristic of born slaves to be incapable of conforming their conduct to a rule or law. Among the positive conditions it requires is an education that develops deliberative competence by providing understanding of different historical periods and social possibilities, developing cultural and aesthetic sensibilities, developing skills essential for critical reasoning and assessment, and cultivating habits of intellectual curiosity, modesty, and open-mindedness V 12—15. As perhaps the leading historical proponent of two important normative traditions—utilitarianism and liberalism—Mill occupies an unusually important position in the history of western moral and political philosophy.

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Views of John Stuart Mill on Representative Government

john stuart mill on government

This is not to deny that my failure to rescue is wrong and perhaps that the law ought to compel aid in such cases. Liberal governments, on this view, can and must enforce individual rights and any further demands of social justice, including those necessary to maintain peace and order. Rather, he is saying when each of us does focus on her own ends or sake, we find that each cares about her own happiness. At several points, he likens the status of women inside and outside of marriage to slavery 284—86, 323. There remain no legal slaves, except the mistress of every house.

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Summary Of John Stuart Mill's Consideration On...

john stuart mill on government

So far, these would seem to be arguments for widespread—indeed, universal—direct democracy. Disinterestedness would breed corruption and that would signal the death of democracy. The constituencies to which most of the highly educated and public spirited persons in the country belong, those of the large towns, are now, in great part, either unrepresented or misrepresented. So, for instance, OL I 11 refers to paragraph 11 of chapter I in On Liberty and SL VI. Either, as in the American republic, the head of the executive must be elected by some agency entirely independent of the representative body; or the body must content itself with naming the prime minister, and making him responsible for the choice of his associates and subordinates. Still more obviously true is it that by their own hands only can any positive and durable improvement of their circumstances in life be worked out.

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John Stuart Mill on the need for limited government and political rights to prevent the “king of the vultures” and his “minor harpies” in the government from preying on the people (1859)

john stuart mill on government

But that would bring a great deal of false belief along too. Still more salutary is the moral part of the instruction afforded by the participation of the private citizen, if even rarely, in public functions. Token actions produce specifiable consequences; only types of actions have tendencies. But presumably the intended conclusion requires that happiness be good simpliciter. Many provisions of the criminal law, such as prohibitions on murder and assault, might be designed both to enforce fundamental moral provisions and to prevent harm to others. Mill worries that some will reject hedonism as a theory of value or happiness fit only for swine II 3. Religion, as a possible source of moral knowledge and Faith, ceases to have a social aspect; the human person begins to only have a spiritual relationship with the divine.

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John Stuart Mill, Of the Government of Dependencies by a Free State, Chapter 18 of Considerations on Representative Government, 1862

john stuart mill on government

But, however little blame may be due to those in whom these mental habits have grown up, and however the habits may be ultimately conquerable by better government, yet, while they exist, a people so disposed can not be governed with as little power exercised over them as a people whose sympathies are on the side of the law, and who are willing to give active assistance in its enforcement. The only mode which has any chance of tolerable success is to govern through a delegated body of a comparatively permanent character, allowing only a right of inspection and a negative voice to the changeable administration of the state. An Analysis Of John Locke's Second Treatise Of Government 1292 Words 6 Pages John Locke's Second Treatise of Government is a work which could be considered modern in nature. Only the broader harm-prevention rationale would explain how Mill could hope to square Good Samaritan laws and laws compelling testimony in court with the harm principle. It seems as if masochists or selfless altruists might fail to desire their own happiness for its own sake. The individual, in other words, is made a material slave to the community of which he is a member.

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John Stuart Mill And The Dangers From Unrestrained Government

john stuart mill on government

It is absolutely unjustified to deprive a man of his right to think the matter in his own way and by applying his own intelligence. Instead, what I have is a right of fair opportunity to compete for the job. Such are not merely the natural tendencies, but the inherent necessities of despotic government; from which there is no outlet, unless in so far as the despotism consents not to be despotism; in so far as the supposed good despot abstains from exercising his power, and, though holding it in reserve, allows the general business of government to go on as if the people really governed themselves. Every colony has thus as full power over its own affairs as it could have if it were a member of even the loosest federation, and much fuller than would belong to it under the Constitution of the United States, being free even to tax at its pleasure the commodities imported from the mother country. To govern a country under responsibility to the people of that country, and to govern one country under responsibility to the people of another, are two very different things.

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John Stuart Mill and the Dangers of Unrestrained Government

john stuart mill on government

This last question mainly depends upon a consideration which we have not yet arrived at—the tendencies of different forms of government to promote Progress. But, for the most part, he seems to concede that the traits are unevenly distributed. In turn, if there were any way to implement such a vote-restricting rule, it is equally hard to see how the current, gigantic interventionist-welfare state could long remain in existence. A financial system which promotes the one, conduces, by the very same excellences, to the other. The Parliament thus brought together represents little more than a bare majority of the people.

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Mill’s Moral and Political Philosophy (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)

john stuart mill on government

Only in a popular government setting apart the accident of a highly intelligent despot could Sir Rowland Hill have been victorious over the Post-office. All intellectual superiority is the fruit of active effort. Take the representative assembly, for instance. It is a matter of great regret that Mill failed to consider this aspect. But then the right or obligatory act would seem to be the one that promotes utility the most or maximizes utility. He emphatically rejects the idea that legitimate government is limited to the functions of affording protection against force and fraud PPE V.

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