“DEMOKRATİK PLATONCULUK”: JOHN STUART MİLL’İN SİYASİ DÜŞÜNCESİNDE ÇOĞUL OY
DEMOCRATIC PLATONISM: PLURAL VOTING IN JOHN STUART MILL'S POLITICAL THOUGHT

Summary/Abstract: John Stuart Mill argues that the representative government is the ideal form of government because all people cannot personally participate directly in politics. Mill, influenced by the "tyranny of the majority" in thought of Alexis de Tocqueville, pointed out that educated people should have more votes. Considering Plato's thoughts that kings should be philosophers, or philosophers kings, it seems that Mill’s elitist attitude isn’t new. It is clear that Mill's plural voting conflicts with his egalitarian view towards human nature and the idea of educative role of political participation. Duncan (1973) describes Mill's attitude as "democratic platonism". In this study, Mill's concept of democracy, elitism and elitist theories are explained and Mill's concept of pluralism is examined in the context of Duncan's concept of "democratic platonism". As all of Mill's works have not yet been translated into Turkish, it is paid attention to translate his thoughts on political participation and plural voting. It is believed that this study is significant and distinctive, considering the inadequate interest in Mill in the Turkish literature, focusing on Mill's thought on plural voting, in itself.

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