一國政治社會之興衰榮枯，繫乎一國人民之道德精神狀態，伴隨著工商業的蓬勃發展，以及代議政體的興起，十九世紀的英國已經面臨現代性的種種症候，如何在制度上因革損益，並積極地提振公民精神，是《代議政府論》的關懷所在。本文主要目的是嘗試從歷史脈絡中去探索彌爾政治思想的旨趣，並特別著重於彌爾如何借鑑於美國的鄉鎮精神以及古雅典的民主制度，以期對英國的政治改革起到補偏救弊的作用。

If history does teach, then one of its lessons is that the rise or decline of a political society depends upon the extent of its people’s abidance by the moral rules, which are expressly or tacitly accepted by general consensus. The development of industrialization and commercialism, together with the solid shaping of representative democracy, are all syndromes of modernity of the nineteenth century Britain. Accordingly the issues of social and political reforms, and the elevating of civic virtues are the main theme of J. S. Mill’s Considerations on Representative Government. This essay is an intensive study of J. S. Mill’s political thought in historical context, focusing on Mill’s proposals for ways of British political reform, making reference to the civic virtues.