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Summary Of John Stuart Mill's Consideration On Representative Government

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Introduction: John Stuart Mill essay on Consideration On representative Government, is an argument for representative government. The ideal form of government in Mill's opinion. One of the more notable ideas Mill is that the business of government representatives is not to make legislation. Instead Mill suggests that representative bodies such as parliaments and senates are best suited to be places of public debate on the various opinions held by the population and to act as watchdogs of the professionals who create and administer laws and policy. Analysis: Societies for centuries have searched for an answer to the enduring problem: “Who should rule us?” This question has been one of the central debates in political philosophy as well as in …show more content…

If people have no place to voice their will or take part in deciding their own destiny, the community might grow disinterested and passive in their relationship with their government. Mill believes this is problematic for society because history, as he sees it, has shown that more democratic societies have more ‘energetic, and ‘developed’ societies as well as more ‘go ahead characters’ not seen in more totalitarian societies. Yet, this criticism might fail to cover a deeper problem of disinterest; it might lead to a level of moral deficiency as well. Mill fears that a loss of ability and activity, leads to a society losing its sense of communal responsibility and social justice. In their aloofness, people might be less inclined to believe that they have any responsibility to society since society has ceased to have any rights or purpose under absolute authority. Mill even posits that religion becomes stunted under such absolute power. Religion, as a possible source of moral knowledge and Faith, ceases to have a social aspect; the human person begins to only have a spiritual relationship with the divine .As such, one’s religious concerns become ones of private salvation with no concern for

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