Right to Universal, Plural and Secret Vote: On the Lib-eral and Conservative Paradoxes of Mill's 'Elitist' De-mocracy

During the era witnessing the development of representative democ-racy, Mill defended the right to “universal suffrage” and believed that individu-als should not be deprived of their political rights. This can be seen as a reflec-tion of his modern, liberal, and democratic attitude. However, by defining cer-tain mandatory prerequisites to have such voting right and adding that taking votes of each individual with an equal impact would be impossible, Mill also showed a contradicting position against his liberal and democratic attitude. The paradoxical limitations brought by Mill to the universal suffrage right can be interpreted as his presentation of an elitist democracy theory. In this paper, the reasons behind Mill’s elitist democracy approach are discussed in details and the nature of his theory of democracy is examined.

Evrensel, Çoğul ve Gizli Oy Hakkı: Mill’in 'Seçkinci' Demokrasi Ku-ramının Liberal ve Muhafazakâr Paradoksları Üzerine

Mill temsili demokrasinin gelişmeye başladığı bir çağda “evrensel oy” hak-kını savunarak hiçbir bireyin politik haklardan mahrum bırakılmaması gerekti-ğine inanmıştır. Bu, onun çağdaş, liberal ve demokrat tavrının bir yansıması ola-rak değerlendirilebilir. Ancak Mill seçmen hakkına sahip olabilmek için zorunlu birtakım ön koşulları belirleyip, bir de üstüne her seçmenin oyunun eşit derece-de bir etkiye sahip olamayacağını ekleyerek, onun liberal ve demokrat tavrıyla çelişkili bir pozisyonu da paylaşmıştır. Mill’in evrensel oy hakkı karşısında ge-tirdiği paradoksal sınırlamalar onun seçkinci bir demokrasi teorisi sunduğu şek-linde yorumlanabilir. Bu çalışmada Mill’in seçkinci demokrasi yaklaşımının te-mel nedenleri ayrıntılı bir şekilde tartışılıp, onun demokrasi teorisinin mahiyeti sorgulanmaya çalışılacaktır.

PDF

___

Aristotle (1971). Aristotle’s Politics. (Trans. H. Rackham). London: The Loeb Clas-sical Library.

Bowles S. & Gintis, H. (1986). Democracy and Capitalism, Property, Community, and the Contradictions of Modern Social Thought. New York: Basic Books.

Capaldi, N. (2004). John Stuart Mill: A Biography. Cambridge: Cambridge Univer-sity Press.

Finley, M. I. (1973). Democracy Ancient and Modern. London: Chatto & Windus.

Giorgini, G. (2009). Radical Plato: John Stuart Mill, George Grote and the Reviv-al of Plato in Nineteenth-Century England. History of Political Thought, 30 (4), 617-646.

Haliday, R. J. (1976). Government Bureaucracy and Voting. Political Thinkers IV: John Stuart Mill. London: Routledge, 125-140.

Herodotos (1925). Herodotus IV: Books VIII-IX. (Trans. A. D. Godley). London: The Loeb Classical Library.

Kendall, W. & Carey G. (1968). The “Roster Device”: J. S. Mill and Contempo-rary Elitism. The Western Political Quarterly, 21 (1), 20-39.

Kern, P. B. (1972). Universal Suffrage without Democracy: Thomas Hare and John Stuart Mill. The Review of Politics, 34 (3), 306-322.

Kinzer, B. L. (1978). J. S. Mill and the Secret Ballot. Historical Reflections, 5 (1), 19-39.

Kinzer, B. L. (1992). Parlimentary Reform and the Radicalization of the Liberal Party. A Moralist In and Out of Parliament. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 80-112.

Locke. J. (1988). Second Treatise of Government. Two Treatises of Government.

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 265-428.

Machiavelli, N. (2008). The Prince. (Trans. J. Atkinson). Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company.

Melleri, A (2014). Public Opinion in the Political Thought of John Stuart Mill. (MS.

Thesis). Helsinki: Political and Economic Studies of Helsinki University.

Mill, J. S. (1832). Pledge [2], Examine, July 15. Collected Works of John Stuart Mill, vol. XXIII. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 496-504.

Mill, J. S. (1958). Considerations on Representative Government. New York: Forum Books.

Mill, J. S. (1972). [Mill’s Letter] to Henry Jones Dates 13/06/1868. Collected Works of John Stuart Mill, vol. XVI. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1972.

Mill, J. S. (1977). Thoughts on Parliamentary Reform. Collected Works of John Stuart Mill, vol. XIX. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

Mill, J. S. (2009a). On Liberty. Auckland: Floating Press.

Mill, J. S. (2009b). The Subjection of Women. Auckland: Floating Press.

Mill, J. S. (2009c). Utilitarianism. Auckland: Floating Press.

Miller, J. (2003). On Plural Voting, Competence and Participation. History of Political Thought, 4 (4), 647-667.

Lipson, L. (1964). The Democratic Civilization. New York: Oxford University Press.

Lipson, L. (2005). The Great Issues of Politics. (Trans. F. Yavuz). İstanbul: Türkiye İş Bankası Kültür Yayınları.

Ober, J. (2008). Democracy and Knowledge. New Jersey: Princeton University Press.

Pennimann, H. (1958). Introduction. Considerations on Representative Government. New York: Forum Books, vii-xxiii.

Plutarch (1914). Lives: Themistocles and Camillus, Aristides and Cato Major, Cimon and Lucullus. (Trans. B. Perrin). London: The Loeb Classical Library.

Sartori, G. (1996). The Theory of Democracy Revisited. (Trans. T. Karamustafaoğlu, M. Turhan). Ankara: Yetkin Yayınları.

Schmidt, M. G. (2002). Introduction to the Theories of Democracy. (Trans. E. Köktaş). Ankara: Vadi Yayınları.

Smart, P. (1990). Some Will be More Equel than Others’: J. S. Mill on Democra-cy, Freedom and Meritocracy. Archives for Philosophy of Law and Social Philosohy, 76 (3), 308-323.

Ten, C. L. (1998). Democracy, Socialism, and the Working Classes. Cambridge Companion to Mill. (Ed. J. Skorupski). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 372-395.

Warner, E. B. (2001). John Stuart Mill’s Theory of Bureaucracy within Repre-sentative Government: Balancing Competence and Participation. Public Ad-ministration Review, 61 (4), 403-413.