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Educating Liberty Democracy and Aristocracy
in J.S. Mill's Political Thought
Chris Barker
Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press / Woodbridge: Boydell &
Brewer, 2018 Hardcover. viii+267 p. ISBN 978-1580469227. $105 / £80
Reviewed by Anne Brunon-Ernst Université Paris
II-Panthéon-Assas
Since the 1990s, there has been a revival of interest in citizenship
education as a means to revitalize democratic participation with the works of
Gert Biesta (Learning Democracy in School and
Society : Education, Lifelong Learning, and the Politics of Citizenship, Rotterdam: Sense Publishers, 2011). Amy Gutmann in
Liberal Equality (Cambridge: University Press, 1980 : 55) acknowledges Mill
as a precursor of the idea that human development is fostered through political
participation. Educating Liberty belongs to this trend and participates in the
conversation on the competing claims of democracy and intellectual independence. A number
of scholars have written books on John Stuart Mill. In contrast, Chris
Barker’s chooses to focus
on civic education. Indeed, he believes that Mill’s theory of education offers
a new way of understanding the “puzzles of the two Mills” [4]. Chris Barker describes
Mill as first and foremost an “educational reformer and experimental utopian” [66].
To form this opinion, he makes his own Mill’s definition of education as
anything that informs character whether “by laws, by forms of government, by
the industrial arts, or by modes of social life” [5]. He follows this line of
reasoning when he divides his argument into five chapters, each turning the
limelight on one of the institutions of Victorian society: marriage, political
economy, science, representative democracy and religion. Chapter 1 explores Mill’s thought on marriage. It takes
an interest on the issue at two levels: first from a legal point of view,
looking at coverture; and second as an instrument of identity formation. It
delves into the influence that Harriet Taylor had on the development of Mill’s call
for change in the patriarchal Victorian marriage institution. According to
Mill, the key element to advance a happy society is marital friendship. While Barker
recognizes that there are more ways of being in a relationship than
companionate marriage, the concept of “marital friendship” has its use to
emphasize the essential need for cooperation in the private and the public
sphere. Chapter 2 investigates the troubled relationship between
workers and owners / managers. According to Barker, Mill’s aim is “to do away
with the separation of society into two distinct (…) classes and to curb the dependence of the
working class on owners and managers” [55]. After describing the competing
theories at the time, be it socialism, communism, classical liberalism or
radicalism – and how Mill’s political economy is to be distinguished from them
– Barker explains Mill’s preference for competition and cooperative
organization, without the help of the state, as they also contribute to foster
the conditions of mental independence. Chapter 3 deals with the role of science in a democracy.
In a fruitful discussion with the French positivist Auguste Comte, Mill tries
to address the issue of making social science compatible with representative
democracy and civic education. The chapter reassesses the interpretation of
Mill as a “defender of expertocracy” and as “someone hopeful that the
influences of the few can correct for problems necessarily generated in a
regime of the many” [108]. The focus here again is on cooperation in the field
of the production of knowledge. Chapter 4 examines Mill’s theory of political
representation. Mill’s endeavor is set in the context of the fear of
majoritarianism. Mill’s input in the debate is to develop “a conservative
theory of representative democracy that relies on the competent and enlightened
few to preserve the ‘fixed point’ of a liberal constitution, while ensuring
that the many do not become passive and disenfranchised” [122]. In order to
make his point, Barker discusses examples of civic participation to show how
Mill suggested setting filters to thwart the problem of individuals’
self-corruption. Chapter 5 examines Mill’s religion of humanity, that is a
human-centered and rationalistic religion which is based on the belief of the
good of humanity. Here again, the parallels with Comte’s writing and personal
life are rife. Mill’s work on religion has attracted little positive notice.
Assessing this corpus from the perspective of civic education is audacious and
makes for an engaging read. Barker follows the line of argument in Mill’s Three Essays, to conclude: Mill acknowledges the problem of
liberal individualism and atomism. He clearly indicates that his answer is to
teach the equal but meritocratic social duties of Utilitarianism as the content
of a civic religion, combined with On
Liberty’s doctrine of individualization in how views and opinions are held,
and not to place religious beliefs in an uncriticizable and irrelevant private
sphere. [162] Educating Liberty is replete with references
to thinkers who contributed to informing Mill’s theories, from his early
influences (Hobbes, Locke, Adam Smith and Bentham) to his wife Harriet Taylor and
other Victorians such as Comte, Tocqueville, Macaulay, Kant, Hegel, Carlile,
Humboldt, Saint Simon, Owen, Fourier, Carlyle, etc. While Barker extensively discusses Comte’s influence, some utilitarian
roots of Mill’s theory are caricatured. Indeed, some secondary sources quoted
need to be updated and the scientific edition of the Collected Works of Bentham is not used. Moreover, repeated
references to the Panopticon give the impression that Bentham’s utilitarianism
boils down to that episode. One of the disadvantages of the book is that it gives too
little attention to the question of Mill’s ideas on India. An in-depth
discussion of his stance might have challenged the tenets of civic education as
understood by Mill in a Western and colonialist context. It is an area of
growing scholarship which would have been of interest to address. Similarly, slavery
is mentioned only in passing. The book attempts to embrace Mill’s complete
works. Because the task is unachievable within the scope of a volume, it would
be unfair to hold against Baker the frustration the reader may feel that some
areas could have been covered more thoroughly. All in all, Educating
Liberty skilfully outlines the importance of civic education
in Mill’s considerable production, and offers a well-informed reading of Mill’s
iconic and lesser-known writings. The significance of the book lies in describing
Mill’s civic education as a life-long endeavor, which begins in the home and is
promoted by small-group associations. These associations prepare individuals to
be free and equal rather than passive and subordinate. Barker analyzes how the development
of civic education relies on confronting existing social hierarchies and
creating new hierarchies of expertise, and in tracing these transformations, Barker
makes the reading of the book enjoyable and interesting for the reader.
☞ Illustrated
version on The Victorian Web : http://victorianweb.org/philosophy/mill/brunonerst.html
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