Mill's Political Thoughts Of Liberalism

Mill's political thoughts of liberalism can be divided into four parts :the philosophical basis of political thought—utilitarianism ,the principle of political thought—liberalism ,the system guarantee—representative government ,and his late political thought—liberal socialism .Scholars always study one part of his political thoughts ,but a few of them study his political thought of liberalism as a whole with utilitarianism .This paper try to analysis Mill's political thought of liberalism with utilitarianism which can be its foundation ,in order to prove that Mill's amendment for utilitarianism and the combination of the utilitarianism with liberalism make the classical liberalism change into modern liberalism .Mill agreed Bentham's utilitarianism as a whole, but amended it :he pointed that happiness had differences between the quality and the quantity ; well-being was not only the core of the amendment of the utilitarianism , but also the key to understand the self-development and freedom .Public happiness and self-sacrifice are unified.Mill began his exposition of liberalism with tyranny of the majority. He expounded the thought and the principle of social freedom which was negative liberty; His concern of the self-development was the door to the positive liberty. So, Mill's liberalism was the bridge between the classical liberalism and the modern liberalism.Representative government was the system guarantee of the Liberalism ,and it was reflected from two facets: first, representative government guaranteed that citizens could enjoy the personal freedom ;second, the government's functional change ,from the laissez-faire to the appropriate intervention , guaranteed the freedom of economy.Mill's liberal thought changed when he was old .He thought he was a liberalist ,and advanced the liberal socialism .He agreed with retaining private ownership ,free competition and distribution according to work ;at the same time ,he wanted to modify the capitalist enterprises by socialism .The most important feature of Mill's socialism was the protection of personal freedom.Mill's liberalism looks scattered ,but utilitarianism was its philosophical basis all the time which had important influence for modern society .Mill's liberalism was the bridge from the classical liberalism to the modern liberalism.