What John Stuart Mill thinks about government
Philosopher (1806 to 1873), a utilitarian and liberal; worked for the East India Company for almost thirty-five years; elected Member of Parliament for Westminster in 1865.
John Stuart Mill did not write this page.
We collected these quotes from things they published elsewhere, and every quote links to where it was said. They have no account here and have not endorsed this site. Quotes are word for word; the short line under each one is our own restatement, not their wording. Their own site. Is this you? Claim it or ask us to remove it. Or tell us what is wrong here.
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7 dated positions, c. 1861, in their own words. Our reading of what John Stuart Mill has said — not written or endorsed by them.
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Our readingThe chief merit of a form of government is to promote the virtue and intelligence of the people
Their wordsThe first element of good government, therefore, being the virtue and intelligence of the human beings composing the community, the most important point of excellence which any form of government can possess is to promote the virtue and intelligence of the people themselves.
↗Considerations on Representative Government (1861)gutenberg.org All 20 from this book
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Our readingThe ideally best government gives supreme power to the whole community, with citizens taking part
Their wordsThere is no difficulty in showing that the ideally best form of government is that in which the sovereignty, or supreme controlling power in the last resort, is vested in the entire aggregate of the community, every citizen not only having a voice in the exercise of that ultimate sovereignty, but being, at least occasionally, called on to take an actual part in the government by the personal discharge of some public function, local or general.
↗Considerations on Representative Government (1861)gutenberg.org All 20 from this book
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Their wordsOne of the greatest dangers, therefore, of democracy, as of all other forms of government, lies in the sinister interest of the holders of power: it is the danger of class legislation, of government intended for (whether really effecting it or not) the immediate benefit of the dominant class, to the lasting detriment of the whole.
↗Considerations on Representative Government (1861)gutenberg.org All 20 from this book
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Our readingHare's proportional representation plan is among the greatest improvements in government yet made
Their wordsSuch and so numerous are these, that, in my conviction, they place Mr. Hare's plan among the very greatest improvements yet made in the theory and practice of government.
↗Considerations on Representative Government (1861)gutenberg.org All 20 from this book
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Their wordsFree institutions are next to impossible in a country made up of different nationalities. Among a people without fellow-feeling, especially if they read and speak different languages, the united public opinion necessary to the working of representative government can not exist.
↗Considerations on Representative Government (1861)gutenberg.org All 20 from this book
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Their wordsThere are, as we have already seen, conditions of society in which a vigorous despotism is in itself the best mode of government for training the people in what is specifically wanting to render them capable of a higher civilization.
↗Considerations on Representative Government (1861)gutenberg.org All 20 from this book
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Our readingGovernment of one people by another, as distinct from self-government, cannot really exist
Their wordsThe government of a people by itself has a meaning and a reality, but such a thing as government of one people by another does not and can not exist.
↗Considerations on Representative Government (1861)gutenberg.org All 20 from this book