Considerations on Representative Government

Those who have done me the honor 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 connection, 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 any thing 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.

LIST OF CONTENTS

CHAP. I. To What Extent Forms of Government Are a Matter of Choice.

CHAP. II. The Criterion of a Good Form of Government.

CHAP. III. That the Ideally Best Form of Government is Representative Government.

CHAP. IV. Under What Social Conditions Representative Government is Inapplicable.

CHAP. V. Of the Proper Functions of Representative Bodies.

CHAP. VI. Of the Infirmities and Dangers to Which Representative Government Is Liable.

CHAP. VII. Of True and False Democracy; Representation of All, and Representation of the Majority Only.

CHAP. VIII. Of the Extension of the Suffrage.

CHAP. IX. Should There Be Two Stages of Election?

CHAP. X. Of the Mode of Voting.

CHAP. XI. Of the Duration of Parliaments.

CHAP. XII. Ought Pledges to Be Required from Members of Parliament.

CHAP. XIII. Of a Second Chamber.

CHAP. XIV. Of the Executive in a Representative Government.

CHAP. XV. Of Local Representative Bodies.

CHAP. XVI. Of Nationality as Connected with Representative Government.

CHAP. XVII. Of Federal Representative Governments.

CHAP. XVIII. Of the Government of Dependencies by a Free State.

Chapter I--To What Extent Forms of Government are a Matter of Choice.

All speculations concerning forms of government bear the impress, more or less exclusive, of two conflicting theories respecting political institutions; or, to speak more properly, conflicting conceptions of what political institutions are.