One of the foremost figures of Western intellectual thought in the late 19th century, John Stuart Mill offered up examinations of human rights, personal and societal rights and responsibilities, and the striving for individual happiness that continue to impact our philosophies, both private and political, to this day.

In this 1861 book, considered his most ambitious political treatise, Mill collects his thinking on:

. the extent to which forms of government are a matter of choice
. the criterion of a good form of government
. the social conditions under which representative government is inapplicable
. the proper functions of representative bodies
. the "extension of suffrage"
. modes of voting
. and much more.


English philosopher and politician JOHN STUART MILL (1806-1873) served as an administrator in the East Indian Company from 1823 to 1858, and as a member of parliament from 1865 to 1868. Among his essays on a wide range of political and social thought are Principles of Political Economy (1848), Considerations on Representative Government (1861), and The Subjection of Women (1869).