John Stuart Mill and Epistemic Democracy explores the epistemic, or cognitive, character of democratic institutional practices and the protection of basic liberties in Mill's political thought. Mapping Mill's theory of representative democracy and critically engaging Mill's more controversial issues, Ivan Cerovac identifies the epistemic criteria within these proposals and uses them as a basis for unifying Mill's political thought. The book addresses the epistemic role of wide democratic participation on the one hand and institutional mechanisms used to filter the public will--such as political representation, plural voting proposals, partisanship, division of epistemic and political labor--on the other, and it analyzes how Mill tries to resolve the conflict between political and epistemic values. Characterizing Mill as both a political instrumentalist and an epistemic democrat, Cerovac sets Mill's theory in a broader explanatory framework and compares it with contemporary accounts of epistemic justification. Emphasizing Mill's normative considerations regarding franchise and the exercise of political power over others, this book discusses how to implement the epistemic ideal in real-world politics. It will be a fascinating read for anyone interested in democratic decision-making.
Ivan Cerovac is research fellow at the University of Rijeka.
"Deep, insightful, useful, brilliant. Cerovac's book is a much needed re-reading of one of the finest political philosophers of modernity, John Stuart Mill. It reveals how much contemporary discussions about the epistemic value of democracy, the importance of civic education or about how critical public deliberation and political representation are for democratic legitimacy, are indebted to the innovative ideas of Mill, and how much we can still learn from this classic." --Jos? L. Mart?, Pompeu Fabra University "John Stuart Mill is one of the most important figures in the history of philosophy. This welcome book is a very helpful guide to better understanding Mill's contributions to moral and political philosophy that will be of much value to students and scholars." --Thom Brooks, Durham University "Utilitarianism of Mill's sort has fallen on hard times, but Mill's sophisticated goal-oriented advocacy of the development and deployment of knowledge does not depend on utilitarianism for its interest. Mill's provocative advocacy of plural voting is well known, but Cerovac pulls together all of the strands, persuasively arguing for an original and illuminating epistemic reading of Mill's political philosophy." --David Estlund, Brown University
