Procedural and Epistemic Elements in John Stuart Mill’s Democratic Theory

Abstract

John Stuart Mill was a British 19th century philosopher, who’s work in the area of liberty is well known. His work on democracy, on the other hand is not. This thesis reviews Mill’s work through the lens of procedural and epistemic democracy, asking what elements of Mill’s philosophy could be considered having attributes of each. The aim of this thesis is to better understand Mill’s view on democracy and his values. He had a clear belief in liberty and equality, but the extent of these beliefs has not yet been examined. Procedural and epistemic democracy allow for these attributes of his work to be analysed. Chapter one is devoted to introducing the concepts of procedural and epistemic democracy. Procedural democracy favours processes rather than outcomes. Epistemic democracy, on the other hand, is more concerned with outcomes. Epistemic democrats see democracy as a search for public opinion and an underlying ‘truth’ amongst the body politic. Through methods such as broad participation in democracy and discussion this can be found. Chapter two considers the procedural elements of Mill’s democratic theory. Mill, who favoured liberty, representative government, and participation, demonstrates some of these elements. His ideas on weighted voting, amongst others points, mean however that he could not be considered purely as a procedural democrat. Chapter three considers the epistemic elements of Mill’s democratic theory. It is argued that two areas of Mill’s work, his belief in free speech and public participation, are inherently epistemic. A third area, Mill’s belief in representative government may not be. This thesis argues, however, that representative government could be considered epistemic. This thesis ultimately shows that Mill’s thought contains elements of both theories as well as contradictory elements.