Considerations of a Representative Government

Considerations of a
Representative Government

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Government
by John Stuart Mill (#2 in our series by John Stuart Mill)
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Title: Considerations on Representative Government
Author: John Stuart Mill
Release Date: May, 2004 [EBook #5669] [Yes, we are more than one

year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on August 5, 2002]
Edition: 10
Language: English
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GUTENBERG EBOOK, CONSIDERATIONS ON
REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT ***

Redacted by Curtis A. Weyant
[Redactor's note: Italics are indicated by underscores surrounding the
italicized text.]
[Footnotes initially found throughout the text have been numbered and
placed at the end of the text.]

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.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I
. To What Extent Forms of Government Are a Matter of Choice.
CHAPTER II
. The Criterion of a Good Form of Government.
CHAPTER III
. That the Ideally Best Form of Government is Representative
Government.

CHAPTER IV
. Under What Social Conditions Representative Government is
Inapplicable.

CHAPTER V
. Of the Proper Functions of Representative Bodies.
CHAPTER VI
. Of the Infirmities and Dangers to Which Representative Government
Is Liable.

CHAPTER VII
. Of True and False Democracy; Representation of All, and
Representation of the Majority Only.

CHAPTER VIII
. Of the Extension of the Suffrage.
CHAPTER IX

. Should There Be Two Stages of Election?
CHAPTER X
. Of the Mode of Voting.
CHAPTER XI
. Of the Duration of Parliaments.
CHAPTER XII
. Ought Pledges to Be Required from Members of Parliament.
CHAPTER XIII
. Of a Second Chamber.
CHAPTER XIV
. Of the Executive in a Representative Government.
CHAPTER XV
. Of Local Representative Bodies.
CHAPTER XVI
. Of Nationality as Connected with Representative Government.
CHAPTER XVII
. Of Federal Representative Governments.
CHAPTER XVIII
. Of the Government of Dependencies by a Free State.

Chapter I
To What Extent Forms of Government are a Matter of Choice.
All speculations concerning forms of government bear the impress,
more or less exclusive, of two conflicting theories respecting political
institutions; or, to speak more properly, conflicting conceptions of what
political institutions are.
By some minds, government is conceived as