Summary Of Mill's Considerations On Representative Democracy

In Considerations on Representative Democracy Mill argues that a form of representative democracy is the best ideal form of government. It is not an invariant ideal that holds regardless of historical or social circumstances. But he does think that it is the best form of government for societies with sufficient resources, security, and culture of self-reliance. In particular, Mill thinks that representative democracy is best because it best satisfies two criteria of all good government: government is good insofar as it promotes the common good, where this is conceived of as promoting the moral, intellectual, and active traits of its citizens, and that government is good insofar as it makes effective use of institutions and the resources of its citizens to promote the common good (CRG 390, 392). Mill thinks that democracy plays an important epistemic role in identifying the common good. Proper deliberation about issues affecting the common good requires identifying how different policies would bear on the interests of affected parties and so requires the proper representation and articulation of the interests of citizens. But failure of imagination and the operation of personal bias present obstacles to the effective representation of the interests of others. Second, Mill thinks that democracy is also the best form of government …show more content…
His democratic faith was a matter of his conviction that ordinary citizens have an elemental humanity often missing in more educated or affluent groups. Dewey’s “democracy as a way of life” is a political ideal linked to both his communal notion of democracy and his view of liberalism. Beyond the school, where citizenship education begins, Dewey claims that individuals learn democratic habits when they associate and participate in political activities, which are not solely confined to political