LAW214 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: John Stuart Mill, Harm Principle, On Liberty
15 Mar 2020
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Or should lawmakers be able to punish people for conduct that they find morally unacceptable: john stuart mill: on liberty. Mill explores the relation between liberty and authority and explains that the function of liberal democratic states is to set limits to the power which the ruler or government can exercise over society. It is important for liberals to limit the power of government over an individual"s life. This is because of the kind of power that government has; the power of government differs from the power of individuals because it is a coercive type of power. While coercive power is not specific to government, the way governments can enforce their power has the potential to severely limit a person"s freedom. The abuse of government power has, therefore, especially bad consequences; namely, the deprivation of a person"s liberty. For this reason, liberals have sought to mark out a space for the individual that is free from governmental interference.
