JS Mill's Representative Government

Qn. Representative Democracy... means the people as a body must be able to control the general direction of government policy. (J. S. Mill). Comment.

As Mill specified in his 'Considerations on Representative Government', "One criterion of the goodness of the government is the degree to which it tends to increase the sum of good qualities in the governed, collectively and individually".

The only government that can fully satisfy all the exigencies of the social state is one in which whole people participate.

For Mill, the point of having a government was its performing two main functions:

  • it must use the existing qualities and skills of the citizens (Competence)
  • improve the moral, intellectual, and active qualities of these citizens (Participation)
A judicial combination of these qualities i.e., Competence and Participation fulfils the protection and educates the citizens

Mill regards representative democracy as necessary for progress, as it will 

  • Provide citizens to develop the quality of reason and judgment
  • Promoted Virtue, Intelligence, and Excellence
  • Provided for autonomy and altruism
  • Provide an efficient forum for conducting the collective affairs of the community.
  • Encouraged free discussion which is necessary for the emergence of truth.
Mill's Idea of Representative Democracy -
  1. Mill advocated a liberal democracy that specified and limited the powers of legally elected majorities by protecting individual rights against the majority.
  2. He sought to adjust the numerical majority by adjusting the franchise with a plurality of votes for better-educated individuals.
  3. Mill advocated for universal education and to be controlled by the State.
  4. Mill recommended the disqualification of
    • those who do not pay local taxes
    • those dependent on public welfare
    • legal bankrupts and moral deviants
  5. He championed equal voting rights for all irrespective of their sex and colour.
Mill highlighted participation as a feature not only of political democracy but of economic democracy as well. Mill is more sanguine about the effect of participation on efficiency and competence in economic concerns than in Politics.
All cannot, in a community exceeding a single small town, participate personally in any but some very minor portions of the public business, it follows that the ideal type of a perfect government must be representative.
JS Mill rejects the idea that representatives are delegates because that would tie them down to the preferences of the electorate. Instead, he says, representatives must be free to act according to their own judgement.
Participation enables people to make informed and intelligent decisions. Mill considers a measure of socio-economic equality as necessary for democracy and liberty to be actualized.

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