Mill on Majority Power and Elite Government

J. S. Mill’s (1806–1873) political participation and democracy approach was based on the philosophy of science that he introduced in System of Logic ([1843] 1973). Mill differentiated the “primary principles” and “secondary principles”. Primary principles were the accepted laws of the field, based on historical scientific evolution. Secondary principles were the transformations of the primary principles when adopted for certain cases by the impact of “disturbing causes”. The Millian narrative about the best form of government was also under the influence of his moral philosophy. Mill proposed secondary principles to lighten the weight of the principle of utility. He based his utilitarian philosophy on a different causality when compared to that of Bentham, arguing that secondary principles were discovered by induction. A. de Tocqueville’s (1805–1859) method was significant since it was consistent with the causality approach on which Millian philosophy of science was based. Consistent with this approach, Tocqueville did not confine himself to the current political laws but also discussed the empirical spatial, temporal, and environmental laws during the development of the phenomenon or the case he discussed.