John Stuart Mill On Democracy, Freedom and Government & Other Selected Writings

In addition to On Liberty and On Representative Government, this new selection of Mills writings includes, among others, a number of less known of his writings, such as: Civilization, Perfectibility, The Negro Question, On Education, On Aristocracy, On Marriage, On Free Press, Socialism, Mills review of Tocquevilles Democracy in America, his letters to Tocqueville, and several other writings.

If one can use a somewhat exaggerated language, Mills writings are to liberal-democracy what Marx and Engels writings were to Communism. Both systems gave expression to 19th century mans longing for equality and justice, both promised to liberate him from the shackles of oppression, authority and tradition. Instead of liberating man, Communism created the most brutal system in human history, and its spectacular fall in 1989 is one of historys greatest events. Western world today shows that liberal-democracy is no longer a benign doctrine, which advocates free market, minimum state and individual liberties, but, like Communism, is an all-encompassing ideology which forces an individual to abdicate his freedom and soul in favor of a Communist-like collective.

As many critics of real Socialism could see the seeds of totalitarianism in the writings of Marx and Engels, so one can see the seeds of liberal totalitarianism in Mills writings. This new edition is intended to help readers to understand why democratic-liberalism came so close to its 19th century ideological rival. See more