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<v Speaker 1>Chapter fifteen B of Considerations on Representative Government. This LibriVox

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<v Speaker 1>recording is in the public domain. Considerations on Representative Government

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<v Speaker 1>by John Stuart Mill, Chapter fifteen B. A mere village

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<v Speaker 1>has no claim to a municipal representation. By a village,

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<v Speaker 1>I mean a place whose inhabitants are not markedly distinguished

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<v Speaker 1>by occupation or social relations from those of the rural

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<v Speaker 1>districts adjoining, and for whose local wants the arrangements made

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<v Speaker 1>for the surrounding territory will suffice. Such small places have

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<v Speaker 1>rarely a sufficient public to furnish a tolerable municipal council.

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<v Speaker 1>If they contain any talent or knowledge applicable to public business,

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<v Speaker 1>it is apt to be all concentrated in some one man,

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<v Speaker 1>who thereby becomes the dominator of the place. It is

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<v Speaker 1>better that such places should be merged in a larger circumscription.

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<v Speaker 1>The local representation of rural districts will naturally be determined

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<v Speaker 1>by geographical considerations, with due regard to those sympathies of

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<v Speaker 1>feeling by which human beings are so much aided to

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<v Speaker 1>act in concert, and which partly follow historical boundaries, such

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<v Speaker 1>as those of counties or provinces, and partly community of

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<v Speaker 1>interest and occupation, as in agriculture, maritime, manufacturing, or mining districts.

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<v Speaker 1>Different kinds of local business require different areas of representation.

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<v Speaker 1>The unions of parishes have been fixed on as the

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<v Speaker 1>most appropriate basis for the representative bodies which superintend the

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<v Speaker 1>relief of indigence, while for the proper regulation of highways

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<v Speaker 1>or prisons or police, a large extent like that of

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<v Speaker 1>an average county is not more than sufficient in these

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<v Speaker 1>large districts. Therefore, the maxim that an elective body constituted

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<v Speaker 1>in any locality should have authority over all the local

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<v Speaker 1>concerns common to the locality requires modification from an another principle,

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<v Speaker 1>as well as from the competing consideration of the importance

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<v Speaker 1>of obtaining for the discharge of the local duties the

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<v Speaker 1>highest qualifications possible. For example, if it be necessary, as

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<v Speaker 1>I believe it to be for the proper administration of

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<v Speaker 1>the poor laws, that the area of rating should not

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<v Speaker 1>be more extensive than most of the present unions, a

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<v Speaker 1>principle which requires a board of guardians for each union,

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<v Speaker 1>yet as a much more highly qualified class of persons

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<v Speaker 1>is likely to be obtainable for a county board than

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<v Speaker 1>those who compose an average board of guardians. It may,

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<v Speaker 1>on that ground be expedient to reserve for the county

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<v Speaker 1>boards some higher descriptions of local business, which might otherwise

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<v Speaker 1>have been conveniently managed within itself by each separate union.

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<v Speaker 1>Besides the controlling council or local sub parliament. Local business

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<v Speaker 1>has its executive department. With respect to this, the same

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<v Speaker 1>questions arise as with respect to the executive authorities in

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<v Speaker 1>the state, and they may, for the most part be

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<v Speaker 1>answered in the same manner. The principles applicable to all

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<v Speaker 1>public trusts are in substance the same. In the first place,

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<v Speaker 1>each executive officer should be single and singly responsible for

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<v Speaker 1>the whole of the duty committed to his charge. In

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<v Speaker 1>the next place, he should be nominated, not elected. It

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<v Speaker 1>is ridiculous that a surveyor, or a health officer, or

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<v Speaker 1>even a collector of rates should be appointed by popular suffrage.

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<v Speaker 1>The popular choice usually depends on interest, with a few

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<v Speaker 1>local leaders who, as they are not supposed to make

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<v Speaker 1>the appointment, are not responsible for it, or on an

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<v Speaker 1>appeal to sympathy founded on having twelve children and having

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<v Speaker 1>been a rate payer in the parish for thirty years.

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<v Speaker 1>If in cases of this description, election by the population

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<v Speaker 1>is a farce, appointment by the local representative body is

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<v Speaker 1>little less objectionable. Such bodies have a perpetual tendency to

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<v Speaker 1>become joint stock associations for carrying into effect the private

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<v Speaker 1>jobs of their various members. Appointments should be made on

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<v Speaker 1>the individual responsibility of the chairman of the body. Let

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<v Speaker 1>him be called mayor Chairman of quarter sessions, or by

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<v Speaker 1>whatever other title he occupies in the locality, a position

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<v Speaker 1>analogous to that of the prime minister in the state,

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<v Speaker 1>and under a well organized system, the appointment and watching

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<v Speaker 1>of the local officers would be the most important part

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<v Speaker 1>of his duty, he himself being appointed by the council

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<v Speaker 1>from its own number, subject either to annual re election

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<v Speaker 1>or to removal by a vote of the body. From

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<v Speaker 1>the constitution of the local bodies, I now pass to

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<v Speaker 1>the equally important and more difficult subject of their proper attributions.

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<v Speaker 1>This question divides itself into two parts. What should be

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<v Speaker 1>their duties, and whether they should have full authority within

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<v Speaker 1>the sphere of those duties or should be liable to

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<v Speaker 1>any and what interference on the part of the central government.

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<v Speaker 1>It is obvious to begin with, that all business purely local,

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<v Speaker 1>all which concerns only a single locality, should devolve upon

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<v Speaker 1>the local authorities. The paving, lighting, and cleansing of the

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<v Speaker 1>streets of a town, and in ordinary circumstances the draining

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<v Speaker 1>of its houses, are of little consequence to any but

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<v Speaker 1>its inhabitants. The nation at large is interested in them

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<v Speaker 1>in no other way than that in which it is

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<v Speaker 1>interested in the private well being of all its individual citizens.

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<v Speaker 1>But among the duties classed as local or performed by

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<v Speaker 1>local functionaries, there are many which might, with equal propriety

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<v Speaker 1>be termed national being the share belonging to the locality

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<v Speaker 1>of some branch of the public administration in the efficiency

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<v Speaker 1>of which the whole nation is alike interested. The jails,

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<v Speaker 1>for instance, most of which in this country are under

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<v Speaker 1>county management. The local police, the local administration of justice,

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<v Speaker 1>much of which, especially in corporate towns, is performed by

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<v Speaker 1>officers elected by the locality and paid from local funds.

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<v Speaker 1>None of these can be said to be matters of

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<v Speaker 1>local as distinguished from national importance. It would not be

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<v Speaker 1>a matter personally indifferent to the rest of the country

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<v Speaker 1>if any part of it became a nest of robbers

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<v Speaker 1>or a focus of demoralization owing to the maladministration of

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<v Speaker 1>its police, or if through the bad regulations of its jail,

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<v Speaker 1>the punishment which the courts of justice intended to inflict

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<v Speaker 1>on the criminals confined therein, who might have come from

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<v Speaker 1>or committed their offenses in any other district, might be

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<v Speaker 1>doubled in intensity or lowered to practical impunity. The points, moreover,

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<v Speaker 1>which constitute good management of these things are the same everywhere.

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<v Speaker 1>There is no good reason why police, or jails, or

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<v Speaker 1>the administration of justice should be differently managed in one

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<v Speaker 1>part of the kingdom and in another. While there is

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<v Speaker 1>great peril that in things so important and to which

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<v Speaker 1>the most instructed minds available to the state are not

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<v Speaker 1>more than adequate, the lower average of capacities, which alone

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<v Speaker 1>can be counted on for the service of the localities,

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<v Speaker 1>might commit errors of such magnitude as to be a

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<v Speaker 1>serious blot upon the general administration of the country. Security

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<v Speaker 1>of person and property and equal justice between individuals are

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<v Speaker 1>the first needs of society and the primary ends of government.

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<v Speaker 1>If these things can be left to any responsibility below

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<v Speaker 1>the highest, there is nothing except war and treaties, which

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<v Speaker 1>requires a general government at all. Whatever are the best

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<v Speaker 1>arrangements for securing these primary objects should be made universally obligatory,

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<v Speaker 1>and to secure their enforcement should be placed under central superintendence.

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<v Speaker 1>It is often useful, and with the institutions of our

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<v Speaker 1>own country, even necessary, from the scarcity in the localities

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<v Speaker 1>of officers representing the general government, that the execution of

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<v Speaker 1>duties imposed by the central authority should be entrusted to

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<v Speaker 1>functionaries appointed for local purposes by the locality. But experiences

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<v Speaker 1>daily forcing upon the public a conviction of the necessity

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<v Speaker 1>of having at least inspectors appointed by the general government

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<v Speaker 1>to see that the local officers do their duty. If

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<v Speaker 1>prisons are under local management, the central government appoints inspectors

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<v Speaker 1>of prisons to take care that the rules laid down

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<v Speaker 1>by Parliament are observed and to suggest others if the

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<v Speaker 1>state of the jails shows them to be requisite, as

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<v Speaker 1>there are inspectors of factories and inspectors of schools to

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<v Speaker 1>watch over the observance of the Acts of Parliament relating

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<v Speaker 1>to the first and the fulfillment of conditions on which

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<v Speaker 1>state assistance is granted to the latter. But if the

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<v Speaker 1>administration of justice, police and jails included is both so

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<v Speaker 1>universal a concern and so much a matter of general science,

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<v Speaker 1>independent of local peculiarities, that it may be and ought

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<v Speaker 1>to be uniformly regulated throughout the country, and its regulation

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<v Speaker 1>enforced by more trained and skillful hands than those of

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<v Speaker 1>purely local authorities. There is also business such as the

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<v Speaker 1>administration of the poor, laws, sanitary regulation, and others, which,

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<v Speaker 1>while really interesting to the whole country, cannot consistently with

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<v Speaker 1>the very purposes of local administration, be managed otherwise than

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<v Speaker 1>by the localities. In regard to such duties, the question

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<v Speaker 1>arises how far the local authorities ought to be trusted

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<v Speaker 1>with discretionary power, free from any superintendents or control of

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<v Speaker 1>the state. To decide this question, it is essential to

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<v Speaker 1>consider what is the comparative position of the central and

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<v Speaker 1>the local authorities as capacity for the work and security

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<v Speaker 1>against negligence or abuse. In the first place, the representative

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<v Speaker 1>bodies and their officers are almost certain to be of

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<v Speaker 1>a much lower grade of intelligence and knowledge than Parliament

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<v Speaker 1>and the national executive. Secondly, besides being themselves of inferior qualifications,

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<v Speaker 1>they are watched by and accountable to an inferior public opinion.

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<v Speaker 1>The public under whose eyes they act and by whom

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<v Speaker 1>they are criticized, is both more limited in extent and

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<v Speaker 1>generally far less enlightened than that which surrounds and admonishes

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<v Speaker 1>the highest authorities at the capital. While the comparative smallness

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<v Speaker 1>of the interests involved causes even that inferior public to

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<v Speaker 1>direct its thoughts to the subject less intently and with

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<v Speaker 1>less solicitude. Far less interference is exercised by the press

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<v Speaker 1>and by public discussion, and that which is exercised may

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<v Speaker 1>with much more impunity be disregarded in the proceedings of

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<v Speaker 1>local than in those of national authorities. Thus far, the

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<v Speaker 1>advantage seems wholly on the side of management by the

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<v Speaker 1>central government. But when we look more closely, these motives

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<v Speaker 1>of preference are found to be balanced by others fully

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<v Speaker 1>as substantial. If the local authorities and public are inferior

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<v Speaker 1>to the central ones in knowledge of the principles of administration,

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<v Speaker 1>they have the compensatory advantage of a far more direct

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<v Speaker 1>interest in the result. A man's neighbors or his landlord

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<v Speaker 1>may be much cleverer than himself, and not without an

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<v Speaker 1>indirect interest in his prosperity, but for all that his

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<v Speaker 1>interests will be better attended to in his own keeping

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<v Speaker 1>than in theirs. It is further to be remembered that,

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<v Speaker 1>even supposing the central government to administer through its own officers,

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<v Speaker 1>its officers do not act at the center, but in

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<v Speaker 1>the locality. And however inferior the local public may be

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<v Speaker 1>to the central, it is the local public alone which

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<v Speaker 1>has any opportunity of watching them. And it is the

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<v Speaker 1>local opinion alone which either acts directly upon their own

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<v Speaker 1>conduct or calls the attention of the government to the

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<v Speaker 1>points in which they may react. Quire correction, it is

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<v Speaker 1>but in extreme cases that the general opinion of the

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<v Speaker 1>country is brought to bear at all upon details of

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<v Speaker 1>local administration, and still more rarely has it the means

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<v Speaker 1>of deciding upon them with any just appreciation of the case. Now,

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<v Speaker 1>the local opinion necessarily acts far more forcibly upon purely

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<v Speaker 1>local administrators. They, in the natural course of things, are

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<v Speaker 1>permanent residents, not expecting to be withdrawn from the place

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<v Speaker 1>when they cease to exercise authority in it, And their

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<v Speaker 1>authority itself depends by supposition on the will of the

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<v Speaker 1>local public. I need not dwell on the deficiencies of

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<v Speaker 1>the central authority in detailed knowledge of local persons and things,

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<v Speaker 1>and the too great engrossment of its time and thoughts

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<v Speaker 1>by other concerns to admit of its acquiring the quantity

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<v Speaker 1>and quality of local knowledge necessary even for deciding on

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<v Speaker 1>complaints and enforcing responsibility from so great a number of

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<v Speaker 1>local agents in the day details of management. Therefore, the

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<v Speaker 1>local bodies will generally have the advantage. But in comprehension

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<v Speaker 1>of the principles even of purely local management, the superiority

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<v Speaker 1>of the central government, when rightly constituted, ought to be prodigious,

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<v Speaker 1>not only by reason of the probably great personal superiority

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<v Speaker 1>of the individuals composing it, and the multitude of thinkers

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<v Speaker 1>and writers who are at all times engaged in pressing

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<v Speaker 1>useful ideas upon their notice, but also because the knowledge

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<v Speaker 1>and experience of any local authority is but local knowledge

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<v Speaker 1>and experience confined to their own part of the country

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<v Speaker 1>and its modes of management, whereas the central government has

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<v Speaker 1>the means of knowing all that is to be learned

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<v Speaker 1>from the united experience of the whole kingdom, with the

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<v Speaker 1>addition of easy access to that of foreign countries. The

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<v Speaker 1>practical conclusion from these premises is not difficult to draw.

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<v Speaker 1>The authority which is most conversant with principles should be

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<v Speaker 1>supreme over principles, while that which is most competent in

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<v Speaker 1>details should have the details left to it. The principal

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<v Speaker 1>business of the central authority should be to give instruction

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<v Speaker 1>of the local authority to apply it. Power may be localized,

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<v Speaker 1>but knowledge, to be most useful must be centralized. There

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<v Speaker 1>must be somewhere a focus at which all its scattered

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<v Speaker 1>rays are collected, that the broken and colored lights which

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<v Speaker 1>exist elsewhere may find there what is necessary to complete

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<v Speaker 1>and purify them. To every branch of local administration which

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<v Speaker 1>affects the general interest, there should be a corresponding central

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<v Speaker 1>organ either a minister or some specially appointed functionary under him,

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<v Speaker 1>even if that functionary does no more than collect information

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<v Speaker 1>from all quarters and bring the experience acquired in one

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<v Speaker 1>locality to the knowledge of another where it is wanted.

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<v Speaker 1>But there is also something more than this for the

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<v Speaker 1>central authority to do. It ought to keep open a

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<v Speaker 1>perpetual communication with the localities, in forming itself by their

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<v Speaker 1>experience and them by its own, giving advice freely when asked,

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<v Speaker 1>volunteering it when seen to be required, compelling publicity and

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<v Speaker 1>recordation of proceedings, and enforcing obedience to every general law

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<v Speaker 1>which the legislature has laid down on the subject of

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<v Speaker 1>local management. That some such laws ought to be laid down,

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<v Speaker 1>few are likely to deny. The localities may be allowed

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<v Speaker 1>to mismanage their own interests, but not to prejudice those

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<v Speaker 1>of others, nor violate those principles of justice between one

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<v Speaker 1>person and another, of which it is the duty of

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<v Speaker 1>the state to maintain the rigid observance. If the local

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<v Speaker 1>majority attempts to oppress the minority, or one class another,

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<v Speaker 1>the state is bound to interpose. For example, all local

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<v Speaker 1>rates ought to be voted exclusively by the local representative body,

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<v Speaker 1>But that body, though elected solely by rate payers, may

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<v Speaker 1>raise its revenues by imposts of such a kind, or

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<v Speaker 1>assess them in such a manner as to throw an

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<v Speaker 1>unjust share of the burden on the poor, the rich,

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<v Speaker 1>or some particular class of the population. It is the

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<v Speaker 1>duty therefore of the legislature, while leaving the mere amount

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<v Speaker 1>of the local taxes to the discretion of the local body,

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<v Speaker 1>to lay down authoritatively the mode of taxation and rules

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<v Speaker 1>of assessment, which alone the localities shall be permitted to

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<v Speaker 1>use again In the administration of public charity. The industry

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<v Speaker 1>and morality of the whole laboring population depends to a

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<v Speaker 1>most serious extent upon adherence to certain fixed principles in

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<v Speaker 1>awarding relief. Though it belongs essentially to the local functionaries

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<v Speaker 1>to determine who, according to those principles, is entitled to

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<v Speaker 1>be relieved, the National Parliament is the proper authority to

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<v Speaker 1>prescribe the principles themselves, and it would neglect a most

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<v Speaker 1>important part of its duty if it did not, in

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<v Speaker 1>a manner of such grave national concern, lay down imperative

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<v Speaker 1>rules and make effectual provision that those rules should not

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<v Speaker 1>be departed from what power of actual interference with the

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<v Speaker 1>local administrators it may be necessary to retain. For the

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<v Speaker 1>due enforcement of the laws is a question of detail

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<v Speaker 1>into which it would be useless to enter. The laws

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<v Speaker 1>themselves will naturally define the penalties and fix the mode

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<v Speaker 1>of their enforcement. It may be requisite, to meet extreme

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<v Speaker 1>cases that the power of the central authority should extend

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<v Speaker 1>to dissolving the local representative council or dismissing the local executive,

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<v Speaker 1>but not to making new appointments or suspending the local

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<v Speaker 1>institutions where Parliament has not interfered. Neither ought any branch

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<v Speaker 1>of the executive to interfere with authority, but as an

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<v Speaker 1>adviser and critic, an enforcer of the laws, and a

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<v Speaker 1>denouncer to Parliament or the local constituencies of conduct which

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<v Speaker 1>it deems condemnable. The functions of the executive are of

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<v Speaker 1>the greatest possible value. Some may think that, however much

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<v Speaker 1>the central authority surpasses the local and knowledge of the

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<v Speaker 1>principles of administration, the social and political education of the

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<v Speaker 1>citizens requires that they should be left to manage these

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<v Speaker 1>matters by their own however imperfect lights to this, it

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<v Speaker 1>might be answered that the education of the citizens is

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<v Speaker 1>not the only thing to be considered. Government and administration

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<v Speaker 1>do not exist for that alone. Great as its importance is,

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<v Speaker 1>but the objection shows a very imperfect understanding of the

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<v Speaker 1>function of popular institutions as a means of political instruction.

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<v Speaker 1>It is but a poor education that associates ignorance with ignorance,

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<v Speaker 1>and leaves them, if they care for knowledge, to grope

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<v Speaker 1>their way to it without help, and to do without

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<v Speaker 1>it if they do not. What is wanted is the

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<v Speaker 1>means of making ignorance aware of itself and able to

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<v Speaker 1>profit by knowledge, accustoming minds which know only routine to

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<v Speaker 1>act upon and feel the value of principle, teaching them

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<v Speaker 1>to compare different modes of action, and learn by the

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<v Speaker 1>use of their reason, to distinguish the best. When we

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<v Speaker 1>desire to have a good school, we do not eliminate

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<v Speaker 1>the teacher. The old remark as the schoolmaster is, so

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<v Speaker 1>will be the school is as true of the indirect

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<v Speaker 1>schooling of grown people by public business as of the

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<v Speaker 1>schooling of youth in academies and colleges. A government which

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<v Speaker 1>attempts to do everything is aptly compared by M. Charles

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<v Speaker 1>de Remusa to a schoolmaster who does all the pupils

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<v Speaker 1>tasks for them. He may be very popular with the pupils,

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<v Speaker 1>but he will teach them little. A government, on the

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<v Speaker 1>other hand, which neither does anything itself that can possibly

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<v Speaker 1>be done by anyone else, nor shows anyone else how

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<v Speaker 1>to do anything, is like a school in which there

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<v Speaker 1>is no schoolmaster, but only pupil teachers, who have never

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<v Speaker 1>themselves been taught. End of Chapter fifteen B Recording by

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<v Speaker 1>Bill forced