the democracies that have been created since our civil war essentially have all gone with the john stuart mill was the guy who came up with the idea as i recall in his book on liberty and and in any case the countries that have come along since our civil war have said hey that you know just or i'm not a pretty good idea let's you know whatever put you know if the party gets three percent of the vote they get three percent of the seats of a party has twelve percent of the vote they get twelve percent the seats and you get a whole bunch of different parties they get to form coalitions and and eventually come up with a governing majority and that's pretty much and that's why all these different countries have all these different political parties and why there's room for you know everything from a communist party to a to the you know to a hard core right wing party and not so much here in the united states we've got a two party system and madison realized that after read written the constitution he freaked out he wrote a warning to us about it in federalist the number ten or number twelve his is

when she was approached by john stuart mill, for example, to sign a petition in favor of the vote for women, she refused. she said that's not her thing. she thought women could do a great many things that they wanted to do without having the vote. c-span: early on in your book you mention a couple of familiar names in this day and age. one of them is margaret thatcher and a statement she made back in 1983 about victorian values or is it virtues? >> guest: that's what's interesting. that as much as anything else provoked me to write that book. in 1983 she was involved in one of her electoral campaigns, and she was being interviewed by a young woman reporter who was rather hostile to her and who at one point said, "mrs. thatcher, it does sound to me as if you were approving of victorian values," to which mrs. thatcher said, "but of course. exactly. those were the values that helped make our country great." then she subsequently went on and she picked up this expression "victorian values." it was used throughout the campaign and in later campaigns. i discovered one occasion when, in fact

wasn't until eight hundred forty one i mean you know i have long after madison was dead that john stuart mill in his book on for on liberty i think it was titled came up with the idea of proportional representation and laid it out and so it was you know all at that point there were only six democrat democracies in the world and so basically all the democracies that came along after eight hundred forty one modern european democracies asian democracies whatever they all embrace proportional representation which is where if a party gets twelve percent of the vote they get twelve percent the seats they get forty percent of votes get forty percent of the seats. we've got this two party winner take all thing the other there are seven countries in the world that have this we do greece as new zealand australia and i forget what the other ones are but new zealand australia fixed it with instant voting so if i can snap shot of this i think it's very good snapshot what we have again it comes back to this idea i hate to say everything's based on fear but let me let me run something by ok when you say soc

john stuart mill min, a great essay, said been somewhat like a one eyed man who was blind in one eye and could see further, but he did not have the perspective. some elements of the intelligence committee have been like that. they can see great on one imension, but they do not have the perspective. i think there is a risk in thinking about leakers that we are blinding ourselves in one eye. think we should just say that there is no one on the review group who would describe edward snowden as a whistleblower. from the civil liberties focus. we did not discuss him, but that is just a fact. whatever you think of that particular person or any particular person, the topic is after snowden. to leak classified material, that is very complicated from a government standpoint, how to handle that. prosecution is a very severe act. if it is formally classified, that is presumptively grave. that might not be the right view. jill suggesting that the classification is not sufficient, it would have to also be a great thing to do. we call on our report for declassification, a lot more transparency, an

john stuart mill min, a great , said been somewhat like a one eyed man who was blind in one eye and could see further, but he did not have the perspective. some elements of the intelligence committee have been like that. they can see great on one dimension, but they do not have the perspective. i think there is a risk in thinking about leakers that we are blinding ourselves in one eye. i think we should just say that there is no one on the review group who would describe edward snowden as a whistleblower. focus.e civil liberties we did not discuss him, but that is just a fact. whatever you think of that particular person or any particular person, the topic is after snowden. to leak classified material, that is very, gated from a government -- that is very complicated from a government standpoint, how to handle that. prosecution is a very severe act. classified,mally that is presumptively grave. that might not be the right view. jill suggesting that the classification is not sufficient, it would have to also be a great thing to do. we call on our report for lot moreication, a transparency,

john stuart mill min, a great essay, said been somewhat like a one eyed man who was blind in one eye and could see further, but he did not have the perspective. some elements of the intelligence committee have been like that. they can see great on one dimension, but they do not have the perspective. i think there is a risk in thinking about leakers that we are blinding ourselves in one eye. i think we should just say that there is no one on the review group who would describe edward snowden as a whistleblower. from the civil liberties focus. we did not discuss him, but that is just a fact. whatever you think of that particular person or any particular person, the topic is after snowden. to leak classified material, that is very complicated from a government standpoint, how to handle that. prosecution is a very severe act. if it is formally classified, that is presumptively grave. that might not be the right view. jill suggesting that the classification is not sufficient, it would have to also be a great thing to do. we call on our report for declassification, a lot more transparency,

if you go to john stuart mill and, much i admire and much i don't. his admiration for the french revolutions of 1831-1848 do not stand up well. however, he argued for multiple balance for people like himself. they should be compelled to vote like ordinary people. this is a longstanding -- insoluble problem. you can flip it around talking about low information. it is not a reasonable question. a lot of voters i am thinking of my hometown of new york, lot of voters, people realize bill deblasio was elected by a record low turnout. the turnout hadn't been that low since before women could vote. not as if there was a great confusion of enthusiasm. this city now is entirely in the hands of low informational lawyers. not that it is not a problem but that is not the problem intellectuals are talking about. one last point on intellectuals and capitalism. not just capitalism intellectuals don't like but democracy. it is democracy. whether it be the love affair of intellectuals with kaiser, not a lovely fellow, i am curious, any people -- anyone read the john

we know we know about women's lives, and back to the question about male feminists i admire, john stuart mill's who wrote on this -- on the subjection of women, he was an early proponent of women telling their troops to man, and he was also one of the first guys to rename the problem of domestic violence. he said, we don't know when ministers because women are afraid. they often live in contexts where physically intimidated. so we have joanna addressing these questions in the 1870's. it did not keep the first great crisis center until 1972. one hundred years later. for all of these reasons in some scenarios it is necessary to have a safe space to provide backup information on women. but most universities also include courses on masculinity is. and i address that, my class is. >> host: 202, 585-3880. 5a53881. al west if he can't get through a false to talk with author and professor bonnie morris you can send it tweet. you can make a comment on the facebook page. or an e-mail. we have all a little over an hour and 20 minutes left with our guest this month. but we like to visit our authors in thei