J.S. Mill's Political Thought: A Bicentennial Reassessment

Description

The year 2006 marked the two hundredth anniversary of John Stuart Mill's birth. Though his philosophical reputation has varied greatly, it is now clear that Mill ranks among the most influential modern political thinkers. Despite his enduring influence, the breadth and complexity of Mill's political thought is often underappreciated. While his writings remain a touchstone for debates over liberty and liberalism, many other important dimensions of his political philosophy have until recently been ignored. This book aims to correct such neglect, by illustrating the breadth and depth of Mill's political writings, by drawing together a collection of essays whose authors explore underappreciated elements of Mill's political philosophy. The book shows how Mill's thinking remains pertinent to our own political life in three broad areas - democratic institutions and culture, liberalism, and international politics - and offers a critical reassessment of Mill's political philosophy in light of recent political developments and transformations.

Nadia Urbinati is Neil Singer Professor of Contemporary Civilization at Columbia University in the Department of Political Science. She is the author of Mill on Democracy: From the Athenian Polis to Representative Government, which received the David and Elaine Spitz Prize as the best book in liberal and democratic theory published in 2002, and Representative Democracy: Principles and Genealogy. Professor Urbinati has edited the works of Carlo Rosselli, Liberal Socialism (1994) and Piero Gobetti, On Liberal Revolution (2000). Alex Zakaras is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Vermont. He is currently completing his first book on individuality and democratic citizenship in the writings of J. S. Mill and Ralph Waldo Emerson.

This timely and vibrant book makes a major contribution to the history of ideas, and offers a good deal more. Its fresh and provocative essays renew our interest in John Stuart Mill by emplacing his writings at the center of a wide range of issues about democracy, pluralism, domination, and empire that are fundamental to political liberalism, in his time and in ours. -- Ira Katznelson, Columbia University A greatly valuable collection of new essays on Mill by a set of distinguished scholars. The book admirably covers Mill's thought about practical affairs and analyzes with patience and imagination his powerful theoretical writings in moral and political philosophy. We are given fine testimony to Mill's incomparable genius. -- George Kateb, Princeton University "J.S. Mill's Political Thought provides a timely reminder that Mill was far more than a Utilitarian philosopher and far more than the author of "On Liberty." The Mill presented by the wide-ranging essays in this volume is a political thinker of the first rank; one whose thought is surprisingly concrete, historical, and non-dogmatic; one whose struggles with the political issues of his own day--including bureaucratic despotism, national liberation, foreign intervention, imperialism, the nature of civic education, and the role of participation--throws a sharp light on those of our time. The essays do a remarkable job of bringing Mill into dialogue with contemporary concerns, while never losing sight of the complex character of Mill's eclectic and inimitable brand of liberalism." -- Dana Villa, University of Notre Dame