Labor, Democracy, Utility, and Mill's Critique of Private Property

Abstract

Scholars have long debated whether John Stuart Mill became a socialist, as he claimed in his Autobiography . This article strengthens the case that he did, ironically, by examining Mill's longstanding adherence to a labor‐based justification for private property in means of production. Even while he developed sharp criticisms of capitalist property relations based on democratic principles of individuality and freedom, Mill held on to this labor justification, which partly offset his growing socialist sympathies. But relatively late in life, Mill reconsidered and discarded the labor justification and began to argue for a more explicit utilitarian analysis of the relevant questions, thus bolstering the importance of his democratic critiques of the system of private property. A recognition of the slow gestation of Mill's views on the labor justification enriches our understanding of his thought on socialism versus capitalism and provides an insight into how he applied utilitarianism in a practical context.