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Considerations on Representative Government

John Stuart Mill

  • Essays
  • Book language: English
  • 227 pages

A collection of essays on representative government, in which John Stuart Mill sets out his ideas on an ideal form of democratic rule. He examines elections, representation and institutions, offering principles for a free society. It is a thought-provoking work for anyone interested in political philosophy.

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Text source: gutenberg.org · The work is in the public domain.

Opening of the book

CONSIDERATIONS ON
REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT
By John Stuart Mill
Author Of "A System Of Logic, Ratiocinative And Inductive"

Preface
Those who have done me the honor of reading my previous
writings will probably receive no strong impression of
novelty from the present volume; for the principles are
those to which I have been working up during the greater
part of my life, and most of the practical suggestions
have been anticipated by others or by myself. There is
novelty, however, in the fact of bringing them together,
and exhibiting them in their connection, and also, I
believe, in much that is brought forward in their support.
Several of the opinions at all events, if not new, are for
the present as little likely to meet with general
acceptance as if they were.
It seems to me, however, from various indications, and
from none more than the recent debates on Reform of
Parliament, that both Conservatives and Liberals (if I may
continue to call them what they still call themselves)
have lost confidence in the political creeds which they
nominally profess, while neither side appears to have made
any progress in providing itself with a better. Yet such a
better doctrine must be possible; not a mere compromise,
by splitting the difference between the two, but something
wider than either, which, in virtue of its superior
comprehensiveness, might be adopted by either Liberal or
Conservative without renouncing any thing which he really
feels to be valuable in his own creed. When so many feel
obscurely the want of such a doctrine, and so few even
flatter themselves that they have attained it, any one may
without presumption, offer what his own thoughts, and the
best that he knows of those of others, are able to
contribute towards its formation.

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Contents

  1. CONSIDERATIONS ON REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT
  2. Preface
  3. Chapter I—To What Extent Forms of Government are a Matter of Choice.
  4. Chapter II—The Criterion of a Good Form of Government.
  5. Chapter III—That the ideally best Form of Government is Representative Government.
  6. Chapter IV—Under what Social Conditions Representative Government is Inapplicable.
  7. Chapter V—Of the Proper Functions of Representative Bodies.
  8. Chapter VI—Of the Infirmities and Dangers to which Representative Government is Liable.
  9. Chapter VII—Of True and False Democracy; Representation of All, and Representation of the Majority only.
  10. Chapter VIII—Of the Extension of the Suffrage.
  11. Chapter IX—Should there be Two Stages of Election?
  12. Chapter X—Of the Mode of Voting.
  13. Chapter XI—Of the Duration of Parliaments.
  14. Chapter XII—Ought Pledges to be Required from Members of Parliament?
  15. Chapter XIII—Of a Second Chamber.
  16. Chapter XIV—Of the Executive in a Representative Government.
  17. Chapter XV—Of Local Representative Bodies.
  18. Chapter XVI—Of Nationality, as connected with Representative Government.
  19. Chapter XVII—Of Federal Representative Governments.
  20. Chapter XVIII—Of the Government of Dependencies by a Free State.
  21. Footnotes:
  22. THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG™ LICENSE

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