ABSTRACT
John Stuart Mill lived through a period which saw major changes in the constitutional framework; the two we are interested in are the extension of the franchise and the emergence of the centralised welfare state. Mill was deeply in favour of the reforms, and responded to these events mainly by elaborating principles of constitutional reform. Among Mill's major concerns for constitutional reforms was Hare's plan of proportional representation. It proposed that each voter has a single transferable vote. Mill's new policy prescriptions must be seen therefore as an answer to the dual problem: to avoid class legislation and to secure the power of the elite. The solution to the dual problem of avoiding class legislation and ensuring the political influence of the elite lies in the institutional safeguards and Mill advocated: Hare's plan, plural voting, public voting, long parliaments, restrictions on the power of parliament, and centralisation.
