Superior minds’ and proportional representation

There have been at least two general reasons for promotion of proportional representation in elections around the world.John Stuart Mill supported proportional representation in part because he thought it would make possible the election of better educated people to legislative assemblies, which would in turn make for better laws.Carl Andrae promoted it because he needed a method of avoiding the exclusion of minorities from legislative influence, or majority tyranny, in nineteenth century Denmark.In this article we bring out Mill's elitism, or preference for 'superior minds' and better educated people, in contrast to Andrae, who makes no judgment about the superiority of representation that proportional representation will create.In the years since their times, Andrae's

Politics · Legal and Social Philosophy · Philosophical Ethics and Theory · Political Theory and Influence