 The nineteenth century was a period coming to terms with the rise of democracy, and this is reflected in the concerns of its social philosophy. Mill’s writings in this area are no exception. His engagement with the question of how society and its institutions ought to be organized is of course guided by an abstract commitment to general happiness as the measure of the success of all human practice—but it is also deeply attentive to the concrete possibilities and dangers of the newly emerging democratic era, and how they relate to this overarching goal (Skorupski 2006).