John Stuart Mill's 1859 work "On Liberty" is a classic exploration of social and civic liberty that defends individual freedom against state authority. Drawing from political philosophers like Locke, Berkeley, and Hume, as well as utilitarian thinkers like Bentham, Mill argues that individual liberties should only be limited to prevent harm to others. He supports representative democracy as the culmination of increasing liberty over time, recognizing its risk of "tyranny of the majority." Central to Mill's philosophy is the "harm principle" that individual actions are free unless they interfere with the rights of others.