John Stuart Mill's 1861 proposal that universal suffrage be tempered by extra votes for the better educated. No state adopted his scheme, though other plural-vote systems existed, such as Belgium's from 1893 to 1919.
In Considerations on Representative Government (1861, ch. 8) Mill argued that everyone should have a vote but that individual mental superiority could justify more than one. He rejected property as a basis except as a temporary makeshift. He proposed testing education directly if a trustworthy national examination existed, and otherwise using proxies: occupation, the liberal professions, university degrees and certificates. He set a limit: plural votes must not let the privileged outweigh the rest of the community. He added that the time had not come for practical shape and that he did not wish to be bound by his particular proposals. Plural voting existed elsewhere (Belgium 1893–1919; UK parliamentary elections until 1948) but on property and family criteria Mill rejected. Objection: credentials are imperfect proxies for competence.
Mill's education-based scheme was not adopted by a state. Belgium used plural votes from 1893 to 1919, and the UK abolished plural voting in parliamentary elections in 1948.
Mill proposed that all should vote but that individual mental superiority could justify more than one vote, tested directly by a national examination if one existed and otherwise by occupation, professional status, university degrees or certificates. He said he did not wish to be bound by his particular proposals.[1]
Mill rejected plural votes based on property except as a temporary makeshift, and held that plural voting must never let its beneficiaries outweigh all the rest of the community.[1]
From 1893 to 1919 Belgium combined universal male suffrage with plural voting: up to two extra votes for some owners, fathers and holders of university or secondary-school certificates. This differed from Mill's scheme, which excluded property as a basis.[1][2]
The UK Representation of the People Act 1948 abolished plural voting in parliamentary elections, so that each person has one vote nationally.[1]