History Questions 11

Introduction

Question 1

John Stuart Mills talked about human liberty, where he outlined the appropriate region of human liberty as encompassing three aspects. There is the liberty of conscience, which is the absolute freedom of sentiment and opinion on all subjects, speculative, practical, theological, moral and scientific. The second aspect revolves around liberty of tastes and pursuits where an individual is free to frame his plan of life to fit his own character as long as the subsequent consequences do not have fellow human beings. Third, they have the liberty to unite for any purpose that does not involve harming other people.

While individuals had all the freedom to pursue their own happiness, there are instances the law should interfere with their individual freedom against the individuals’ will. This is especially in instances where their actions would cause harm to other people. Of particular note is the fact that causing harm to oneself would not be a sufficient warrant for such interference, although such harm would come as a powerful reason for remonstrating the actions.

Tyranny or dictatorship primarily took the form of one individual lording it over a majority. However, this was replaced by democracy, which was based on the idea that individuals should rule themselves. However, this only amounted to the rule of the majority other the minority. In essence, democracy is a new form of tyranny as individual freedom or liberty would be denied purely based on numbers. This, according to Mills, meant that the values, ideals and ideas of the majority would be imposed on all other individuals that represented less than 50% of the electorate.

Question 2

Giuseppe Mazzini also spoke of the idea of liberty and democracy of human beings. He seems to agree with John Stuart Mills with regard to democracy. John Stuart states that the individuals that exercise the power are usually not the same one over whom such power is exercised, in which case self-government is not always the “government of each by himself” rather it is each by the rest. In democracies, the individuals who are successful in obtaining the acceptance of the majority may see it fit to oppress a proportion of the people. The self-interest of the individuals in power is underlined in Mazzini’s statement that the governments never recognize any country apart from their own dynasty or families or rather the egoism of caste.

Benito Mussolini, however, would disagree with John Stuart Mills on the idea of liberty. Mills tends to value personal liberty to pursue one’s interests as far as the interests do no harm other individuals. This means that liberty can and should exist in an individual. However, Benito Mussolini, while acknowledging the importance of liberty states that liberty can only be real when it entails the liberty of the state or rather the liberty of an individual within a state. However, Benito and Stuart Mills have a common ground as far as democracy is concerned. Stuart Mills is a bit wary of democracy and calls it “the tyranny of the majority over the minority”. Benito Mussolini, on the other hand, does not see how the majority, simply based on their numbers should direct the course of human society. He does not see how numbers alone can be used in governing through periodical consultations and acknowledges that human beings will never be equal.

Endnotes