Synopsis
A treatise defending representative democracy as the best government while wrestling with how to protect competence and minorities from majority rule.
Core passage idea
Paraphrase · Public domainRepresentative government is ideally best, but to avoid mediocrity and majority tyranny it needs devices like proportional representation and weight given to skilled judgment.
It confronts the central liberal worry that democracy can crush both excellence and dissent unless carefully designed.
To avoid a bubble
Pair with Rousseau, Social Contract.
Reading note
Read it as institutional design, noting where Mill's safeguards reflect Victorian fears about an uneducated electorate.
Best paired with
Rousseau, Social Contract