Mill-Macaulay Debate on Government

This is a Reading List based upon a Liberty Fund Conference on “Liberty and Responsibility in Constitutional Political Economy: The Mill-Macaulay Debate”.

Liberty and Responsibility in Constitutional Political Economy: The Mill-Macaulay Debate

Topic

These readings explore the infamous dispute between James Mill and Thomas Macaulay over Mill’s worst-case model of government (Mill modeled government as akin to a “slave-driver”) and the alleged incongruence of Mill’s worst-case theory of government (human nature is uniformly self-interested) with his advocacy of representative democracy (extension of the suffrage and annual parliaments alike).

Guide to the Readings

Editions used:

• David Hume, Essays Moral, Political, Literary, edited and with a Foreword, Notes, and Glossary by Eugene F. Miller, with an appendix of variant readings from the 1889 edition by T.H. Green and T.H. Grose, revised edition (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund 1987).
• James Madison, The Federalist (The Gideon Edition), Edited with an Introduction, Reader’s Guide, Constitutional Cross-reference, Index, and Glossary by George W. Carey and James McClellan (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2001).
• Liberty and Order: The First American Party Struggle, ed. and with a Preface by Lance Banning (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2004).
• Geoffrey Brennan, The Collected Works of James M. Buchanan, Vol. 10 (The Reason of Rules: Constitutional Political Economy) Foreword by Robert D. Tollison (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 1999).
• Thomas Babington, Lord Macaulay, The Miscellaneous Writings of Lord Macaulay, vol. 1, (London: Longman, Green, Longman, and Roberts, 1860).

See also in the Online Library of Liberty:

• Collections: 19th Century Utilitarians

For additional reading see:

• James Mill (1773-1836)
• Thomas Macaulay (1800-1859)
• James M. Buchanan (1919-2013)

Session I: Every man a knave

David Hume, Essays, Moral, Political and Literary

• “Of the Independency of Parliament”

James Madison, Federalist

• No. 10 "The Utility of the Union As a Safeguard Against Domestic Faction and Insurrection" (continued)

Lance Banning’s Liberty and Order

• Letters from Madison, pages 104-105;

James Mill, Ulitarian Logic and Politics (London: Jack Lively & John Rees, ed., 1820).

• Essay on Government, pp. 55-72

James Mill’s Political Writings, "Reply to Macaulay (1835), pages 304-314 

Geoffrey Brennan and James M. Buchanan, The Reason of Rules

• 4.: Modeling the Individual For Constitutional Analysis, pages 53-64, 67-68, and 73-75

Session II: Government as slave-driver

James Mill, Ulitarian Logic and Politics (London: Jack Lively & John Rees, ed., 1820).

• Essay on Government, pp. 72-95

Thomas Babington, Lord Macaulay, The Miscellaneous Writings of Lord Macaulay, vol. 1, (London: Longman, Green, Longman, and Roberts, 1860).

• Mill On Government. ( March 1829.)

Session III: Liberty and the ‘lure’ of the off-diagonal

Westminster Review (attributed to T. Perronet Thompson), “Greatest Happiness Principle,” pages 133-149 - [See Utilitarian Logic and Politics, ed. Jack Lively and John Rees]

Thomas Babington, Lord Macaulay, The Miscellaneous Writings of Lord Macaulay, vol. 1, (London: Longman, Green, Longman, and Roberts, 1860).

• “Bentham’s Defence of Mill" (WESTMINSTER REVIEWER’S DEFERENCE OF MILL. (June 1829.))

Session IV: Virtue, Sympathy, and Rules

Westminster Review, “Edinburgh Review and the ‘Greatest Happiness Principle’,” pages 181-191, and 227-245 - [See Utilitarian Logic and Politics, ed. Jack Lively and John Rees]

Thomas Babington, Lord Macaulay, The Miscellaneous Writings of Lord Macaulay, vol. 1, (London: Longman, Green, Longman, and Roberts, 1860).

• “Utilitarian Theory of Government”

Session V: Constitutional Political Economy: Preaching

Geoffrey Brennan and James M. Buchanan, The Reason of Rules

• 9.: Is Constitutional Revolution Possible In Democracy?

James M. Buchanan’s Choice, Contract, and Constitutions, pages 148-154, and 267-276 

Session VI: General Discussion