DEMOCRACY IN JOHN STUART MILL’S POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY

Liberty, happiness and democracy are the key terms of John Stuart Mill’s political philosophy. Mill evaluates liberty, he accepts as the most important problem of the future, in three stages as freedom of thought, freedom of action and freedom of aggregation. According to Mill, any restriction of freedom of thought could not be accepted in any case because all kinds of thought include truth as potential. Freedom of action and freedom of aggregation could be restricted just by relying on harm principle that means someone is free in his action as soon as he does not harm other people. Mill, while accepting the aim of life as happiness, avoids describing happiness as the sum of pleasures. Happiness, according to Mill, is not the happiness of individuals but the happiness of everyone related with the action. The regime of a society is directly related with the character of society. Hence, Mill is in favor of searching for a regime compatible with the society rather than ideal regime for all societies. In political philosophy of Mill, the mere administration fulfils the necessary needs of society is the administration whole community participated. The higher developmental degree a society has, the compatibility of the democracy for the related society is higher, as well. Mill discriminates between true and false democracy. In true democracy of Mill, the important factor is not the selection of majority but the property. By this way, he aims to increase the moral and intellectual capacity of the society