Considerations on Representative Government
{{Short description|Book by John Stuart Mill}}
{{redirect|Representative Government||Representative democracy}}
{{Infobox book
| name = Considerations on Representative Government
| image = John Stuart Mill, Considerations on Representative Government (1st ed, 1861, title page).jpg
| caption = Title page of the first edition
| author = John Stuart Mill
| country = United Kingdom
| publisher = Parker, Son and Bourn
| language = English
| release_date = 1861
| media_type = Print
| pages = viii, 340 pp.
}}
Considerations on Representative Government is a book by John Stuart Mill published in 1861.See {{Cite book |last=Mill |first=John Stuart |author-link=John Stuart Mill |url=https://archive.org/details/considerationso04millgoog |title=Considerations on Representative Government |publisher=Parker, Son, & Bourn |year=1861 |edition=1 |location=London |publication-date=1861 |access-date=20 June 2014}} via Google Books.See {{Cite book |last=Mill |first=John Stuart |author-link=John Stuart Mill |url=https://archive.org/details/considerations00mill |title=Considerations on Representative Government |publisher=Henry Holt & Company |year=1873 |edition=1 |location=New York |publication-date=1873 |access-date=20 June 2014}} via archive.org.
Summary
Mill argues for representative government, the ideal form of government in his opinion. One of the more notable ideas Mill puts forth in the book 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. In his words:{{citation|author=John Stuart Mill|author-link=John Stuart Mill|chapter=Of the Proper Functions of Representative Bodies|title=Considerations on Representative Government|location=London|publisher=Parker, Son, and Bourn|year=1861|pages=86–107 at 106|oclc=3751806|title-link=:File:John Stuart Mill, Considerations on Representative Government (1st ed, 1861).pdf}}.
{{quote|Their part is to indicate wants, to be an organ for popular demands, and a place of adverse discussion for all opinions relating to public matters, both great and small; and, along with this, to check by criticism, and eventually by withdrawing their support, those high public officers who really conduct the public business, or who appoint those by whom it is conducted.}}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/5669 Complete text of the book on Project Gutenberg]
- {{librivox book | title=Considerations on Representative Government | author=John Stuart Mill}}
{{John Stuart Mill}}
{{Authority control}}
Category:Books about democracy
Category:Books by John Stuart Mill
Category:Books in political philosophy
{{poli-philo-book-stub}}