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What is the best form of government? John Stuart Mill argues that it is representative democracy, because it protects people's rights and helps them grow…
What is the best form of government? John Stuart Mill argues that it is representative democracy, because it protects people's rights and helps them grow into active, thoughtful citizens. He then examines its dangers, the tyranny of the majority, incompetent rulers and the influence of narrow class interests, and proposes remedies, among them proportional representation, extra votes for the educated and the vote for women.
Context and significance
Published in 1861, between On Liberty and The Subjection of Women, the book is one of the founding texts of modern democratic theory. Mill (1806–1873) later sat in Parliament, where in 1867 he proposed giving women the vote. From here, try his Autobiography.
About the author
John Stuart Mill (1806–1873) received one of the most intense educations ever recorded: his father taught him Greek at three and Latin at eight, and by his teens he was writing on economics. At twenty he fell into a deep depression and found his way out through the poetry of Wordsworth, an experience that taught him the value of feeling alongside reason.
He worked for thirty-five years at the East India Company, wrote on logic, economics and politics, and shared his intellectual life with Harriet Taylor, whom he married in 1851. As a Member of Parliament he proposed votes for women in 1867. His On Liberty, Utilitarianism and The Subjection of Women are still at the centre of debate.