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IdentificationJohn Stuart Mill (1806-1873) was a child prodigy, who at the age of three could read Greek and by the age of thirteen had finished his school education. The talent endured, and he became an influential philosopher, politician and economist. His political thoughts are set out in Considerations on Representative Government, which was published in 1860. As a liberal thinker, he was an advocate of democracy, (almost) universal suffrage, selfdetermination of colonies, basic school education, and gender equality. Stuart Mill also developed a moral philosophy that became known as utilitarianism, in which what is morally correct is determined by that which promotes the greatest happiness of the greatest number of people.
The French Revolution had cleared the decks, leaving the old societal system of absolutism and the Estates in ruins. What was to replace this system? The first attempt to create a sensible society based on liberty, equality and fraternity quickly led to terror. Those who believe reason is on their side easily succumb to behaving brutally towards those who do not accept what other people regard as reasonable. Also dictatorship, in the guise of Napoleon, met its Waterloo in 1815, and the attempt to turn back the clock and reestablish absolutism aroused fury. People who have tasted freedom will not accept servitude. A modern democracy cannot imply that everyone must congregate in one place in order to make decisions. The population is too large and its political experience too small. When the population cannot govern directly, it must do so indirectly through representatives. It must select the “best among equals” and allow them to take decisions on its behalf. In this way, everyone’s interests are voiced, and as an added bonus it will provide a democratic learning process for all citizens. Representative democracy is the best compromise between unenlightened rule of the masses and the greedy rule of the aristocracy. As a consequence of his utilitarianism (“greatest happiness of the greatest number”), Stuart Mill believed that (almost) all groups of society should have the franchise. Mill was both afraid that voters would vote according to narrow class interest and that politicians would say and do anything to win power. Governing a country requires knowledge and experience; something which not everyone possesses. Mill believed in objectivity and reason, and he wished to balance popular rule with elite rule, in which those who were best qualified were given particular influence, not least because they were, in his opinion, the least partisan. Such individuals would vote less according to personal interest and more according to what served the common good. In the same way that countries differ in terms of their level of civilisation, people differed in terms of their insight, experience and character. Stuart Mill considered whether the best qualified should have “two or more votes” and advocated setting up an expert council to under - take the work of drafting legislation. Alongside “the People’s Chamber”, a “Chamber of Statesmen” should also be created, composed of people who had held important political positions. This chamber could be a bulwark against the unenlightened and “rectify their mistakes”. At the same time, people who received parish relief or who did not pay tax should be disqualified of the franchise, on the grounds that they would be tempted to be lavish and squander public funds. Furthermore, women should be enfranchised, and in this regard Stuart Mill was a pioneer, greatly influencing Georg Brandes (1842- 1927) and cultural radicalism in Denmark. Democracy raised technical, legal and moral issues at a time when representative democracy was still an idea for the future. Stuart Mill takes an important step on the road to a modern democracy. Even though his prejudices are evident, he sought to deliver a non-prejudiced analysis of how a representative democracy could be designed.
“From these accumulated considerations, it is evident that the only government which can fully satisfy all the exigencies of the social state is one in which the whole people participate; that any participation, even in the smallest public function, is useful; that the participation should everywhere be as great as the general degree of improvement of the community will allow: and that nothing less can be ultimately desirable than the admission of all to a share in the sovereign power of the state. But since 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.” “Democracy is not the ideally best form of government unless this weak side of it can be strengthened; unless it
can be so organised that no class, not even the most numerous, shall be able to reduce all but itself to political
insignificance, and direct the course of legislation and administration by its exclusive class interest.”
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This page is part of the electronic publication "The Danish Democracy Canon"