Um filósofo entre os comuns: John Stuart Mill e o governo representativo no parlamento britânico (1865-1868)

Abstract

There is a growing interest in John Stuart Mill and his perspectives on representative democracy, of which he was an activist and a leading theorist. An eclectic empiricist and intellectual, the second Mill was born in 1806 in Pentonville, London, and died in 1873, in the town of Avignon, France. The Westminster philosopher nurtured a radical concept of human freedom and emphasized the role of government in promoting the development of the individual and society. Jeremy Bentham and James Mill programmed little John to be the prince of the utilitarian radicals; however, after his mental breakdown, he embraced new influences whose applicability forged a type of millean neoutilitarism, reconciling Liberalism and Utilitarianism. In his time, his most influential works were A System of Logic (1843) and The Principles of Politics Economy (1848), in which he revitalized classic economic assumptions in relevant discussions in Political Economy. During the 20th century, his prominent works were Utilitarianism (1861), Considerations on Representative Government (1861), and On Liberty (1859). In May 1823 John Stuart Mill joined the East India Company as Examiner of India Correspondence; he remained at the company for 35 years, a rich opportunity to follow the different demands of public affairs and institutional relations. John Stuart Mill absorbed portions of the theories of British and continental thinkers, such as Auguste Comte and Alexis de Tocqueville; of historians shared aspects associated with the methodological inclusion of history in political and social discussions. Aligned with Tocqueville, he feared the effects of the “tyranny of public opinion” or “despotism of customs” about the social character of a people. Despite the flourishing mound about the Westminster philosopher, his parliamentary activity is still scarcely scrutinized, leaving the period only caricatured by some scholars. The present study revisited fundamental facts in his brief parliamentary career (1865-1868), led by a moralist radical who adopted democracy as his way of life inside and outside the British Parliament; the discussion of essential public themes gave the Commons a new look and raised its intellectual level. John Stuart Mill's discursive rhetoric provided a unique opportunity to apply the hermeneutic proposals of Quentin Skinner and John Pocock, whose methodology defends the understanding of the historicity of thought by recovering the authorial intentionality in the ideas and conventions in the political debate. The parliamentary philosopher pioneered, in the history of parliaments, a motion in favor of female suffrage; likewise, it included an electoral proposal based on Thomas Hare's theory of proportional representation; advocated a radical solution to the peasant issue in Ireland; filed a criminal complaint against a colonial governor for the murders committed during the repression in Jamaica; defended individual and civil liberties inside and outside the UK; he fought for the active participation of workers in British political life; resolute, made belief in permanent progress the guiding thread of his mandate. He influenced the political history of his time in the intended direction; thus, echoes of his ideals have crossed borders and resonated through various democratic systems more than 160 years after their formulation.