Writings on Representative Government and Parliamentary Reform

This volume gathers, for the first time, Mill’s most important writings from across his long career on one of the principal subjects of his life: the nature and reform of representative government. By doing so, it sheds new light on Mill’s views about democracy, constitutional structure, parliamentary government, class conflict, the relation between elites and the people, and many other key themes of his political thought. It includes an extensive original Introduction situating Mill’s work in the context of the politics of nineteenth-century Britain, and connects his thought to questions that still confront liberal states today.

Reviews:

“Thanks to Gregory Conti, we finally have a nearly complete collection of J. S. Mill’s writings on representative government. This volume shows us the development of the theory of electoral representation and the ideal dialogue Mill entertained with the European protagonists of representative institutions—a text of  documents and theoretical reflections central to understanding the history of our present.”
—Nadia Urbinati, Kyriakos Tsakopoulos Professor of Political Theory, Columbia University

“In this book, Gregory Conti has assembled many of John Stuart Mill’s most important political writings, from the forgotten to the canonical. His notes and Introduction make them accessible to any reader. Conti’s Introduction to the volume may be the best general overview of Mill’s political thought and its historical context that we have. This is an indispensable volume for anyone interested in Mill.”
—William Selinger, Wick Cary Associate Professor of Constitutional Studies, The University of Oklahoma

About the Editor:

Gregory Conti is Assistant Professor of Politics at Princeton University.