Page 168 - DPOL201_WESTERN_POLITICAL_THOUGHT_ENGLISH

Western Political Thought

Notes of the rulers, instead of division of powers, as not only good in itself, but also good as a means of
constitutional liberty.
It was during the French Revolution that Bentham developed his theory of constitutional
government. Impressed by the strides made by American democracy with its broad-based suffrage
and security of property, he was convinced of the inherent value of democracy, hoping that
England would take a leaf from the American experience. He regarded constitutional representative
democracy as an overall political arrangement safeguarded by measures like widespread suffrage,
an elected assembly, frequent elections, freedom of the press and of association as a guarantee
against misrule. It would also protect the individual from arbitrary and despotic governments. He
regarded constitutional democracy as being relevant “to all nations and all governments possessing
liberal opinions” (Bentham 1983: 1). Initially he desired to make Britain a republic but after
witnessing the excesses of the horrors of the French Revolution he was cautious about
recommending the abolition of the monarchy.
Bentham doubted the efficacy of a revolution to ensure individual and political emancipation. He
insisted on gradual change, based on the overall security of the individual in society. He was
enthused initially by the impetus of the French Revolution, seeing in it a hope for his reform
proposals and the panopticon scheme. But subsequently he himself was disappointed at the turn
of events in France, which led to violence and the “reign of terror”.
Bentham urged a more universal and centralized system to register births, marriages and deaths,
inspiring the 1836 Registration Act in England. He also suggested that the government should
undertake responsibility in matters like education, care of the insane, and provide protection
against intentional offences and accidental dangers. He recommended a Preventive Service Minister
to mitigate calamities like floods, epidemics, landslides and conflagrations, by providing fire-
fighting equipment, enforcing fire regulations and other safety measures in factories and mines,
survey bridges, dykes, and embankments, and undertaking repair or demolition of unsafe buildings.
He recommended the establishment of a permanent police, separate ministers for education, health
and “indigence relief. He sought assurance for adequate and uncontaminated drinking water,
hospitals to take care of the sick, vaccination during epidemics, and proper drainage and sewage
systems. It was for these recommendations that Joe Roebuck spoke of the silent revolution that
became largely possible due to the diffusion of Bentham’s ideas.
Bentham’s followers helped in the founding of the Anti-Corn Law Association in 1836. Many of
them invoked his name to legitimize their cause. Bowring and Archibald Prentice, a Manchester
journalist and an admirer of Bentham, praised his monumental efforts towards the Corn Law
agitation, describing him as the “father of practical free traders”. Benthamite civil functionaries
like Edwin Chadwick and James Key-Shuttleworth introduced the principles of central control
and inspection. They enacted the Metropolitan Police Act of 1829, the Education Act of 1833, the
Factory Act of 1833, the New Poor Law Act of 1834, the Municipal Reform Act of 1835, the Act for
Scientific System of Vital Statistics in 1836, the Railway Regulation Act of 1840 and the Public
Health Act of 1848. Appropriately and rightly, he “furnished the philosophic banner under which
the ‘legislative revolution’ was carried on”.

9.4 Economic Ideas
Bentham appreciatively read the works of Smith, a champion of free trade. He considered Smith
“a writer of great and distinguished merit”, pointing to the similarities between the views of
Smith with those of his own, as expressed in Manual of Political Economy (1793-1795). Like Smith,
Bentham defended laissez faire-ism but pleaded for the government’s non-interference in regulating
interest rates in his Defence of Usury (1787). This was seen by many as criticizing Smith from an
extreme laissez faire position as the one articulated by Smith. Smith evidently suggested that
interest rates should not be determined by market forces alone.

162 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY