The Online Library of Liberty

A project of Liberty Fund, Inc.

• Essays On Politics and Society
• Thoughts On Parliamentary Reform 1859
• Recent Writers On Reform 1859
• Considerations On Representative Government 1861
• Editor’s Note
• Preface
• 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
• Centralisation 1862
• Appendices
• Appendix a Taylor’s Statesman (1837)
• Appendix B Appendix to Dissertations and Discussions, Vol. I (1859)
• Appendix C Jowett On Civil Service Examinations (1854)
• Appendix D Substantive Variants Between the People’s Edition and the Final Library Edition of On Liberty
• Appendix E Substantive Variants Between the People’s Edition and the Final Library Edition of Considerations On Representative Government
• Appendix F Bibliographic Index of Persons and Works Cited In the Essays, With Variants and Notes

Preface

those who have done me the honour 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 connexion; 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 anything 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.^a

[a]612 [rule, and paragraph] The only change, not purely verbal, in the present edition, (except a short note inserted at p. 264 [528 of the present edition],) consists of the addition of a few pages to the Seventh Chapter, written to clear up some of the difficulties expressed by objectors to the plan, there advocated, for the representation of minorities.