Mills

Mill’s paper on liberty starts with his recounting of the past struggles of Greece, Rome and England between the rulers and the classes and, how the aim of instituting liberty in these times and places was to set limits to defend the “people” against the tyranny of the “government.” He said this was accomplished by making a “list” of things that the “government” could not and did not have any right to infringe upon by their very nature and the attempt to do so give the people the right to rise up against the oppression. Second, was to put into place “a system of checks.” This entailed forming a body of representatives of and for the people.

This is Mill’s jumping off point on the topic of democracy. It seems that Mill’s feels that democracy has failed or is failing. A system that was implemented with the intention to make things “fair” for everyone and protect them from not just the government, but also any rule, has only put the lower class under the rule of the middle class and those above and the idea of “self-government" had been corrupted. This corruption stems from social tyranny, which was not addressed in the original “system of checks.”

This leads to the next idea, liberty. In the past, liberty meant primarily protection from tyranny. Over time, the meaning of liberty changed. This evolution brought about a new problem where the tyranny of the majority forces its will on the minority. This state of affairs can exercise a tyrannical power even outside the political realm, when forces such as public opinion stifle individuality and rebellion. Here, society becomes the tyrant by seeking to inflict its will and values on others.

This leads to his thoughts on society. Society has a right to guard against crimes and potentially hazardous situations. For instance, Mill observes that the right to prevent crimes makes it legitimate to limit conduct in the interest of prevention. Such as, the police must be careful not to restrict things that might only...