Bentham’s Calculus: The Economy of Coercion and Mechanisms of Security

Year 2025, Volume: 45 Issue: 1, 306 - 334, 30.06.2025

Abdullah Enes Özel

Abstract

For Bentham, security is the ultimate goal of governmental intervention and the fundamental criterion for deter, mining how and to what extent the government should intervene. It consists of two intertwined dimensions, one of which is the protection of the ordinary course of life against all forms of interruption and encroachment, including crime, and the second is the safeguarding of people’s expectations about the future, above all their expectations regarding property. At the heart of this conception of security lies a concern to preserve and maintain the social order and its existing distribution of property. As the ultimate criterion, “security” becomes the guiding principle that shapes Bentham’s economy of coercion. He seeks to translate this economy into practice through various tech, nologies of power and security mechanisms, which he categorises as “direct” and “indirect legislation”. In practical terms, these manifest institutionally in forms such as “preventive police”, “industry houses” or the “penitentiary”. Although Bentham frequently and emphatically condemns coercion, repression and punishment in his writings, a closer examination reveals that this is not a normative moral judgement, but rather an economic evaluation; for the forms of intervention he envisages do not exclude coercion, but instead transform it into a usable resource to be employed strategically — depending on the extent to which the ultimate goal of “security” is perceived to be under threat. This article analyses the fundamental and intrinsic relationship between liberalism and coercion by considering Bentham’s calculative approach to governmental interventions within this framework.

Keywords

Jeremy Bentham, Liberalism, Utilitarianism, Indirect legislation, Preventive police, Poor law, Pauper management

References

• Bahmueller, C. F. . (1981). The National Charity Company : Jeremy Bentham’s silent revolution. University of California Press. google scholar
• BentHam, J. (1843a). A Manual of Political EconomY. İn J. Bowring (Ed.), The Worhs of Jeremy Bentham (Vol. 3, pp. 31-65). William Tait. google scholar
• BentHam, J. (1843b). An İntroduction to tHe Principles of Morals and Legislation. İn J. Bowring (Ed.), The Works of Jeremy Bentham (Vol. 1, pp. 1-154). William Tait. google scholar
• BentHam, J. (1843c). Of tHe Levelling SYstem. İn J. Bowring (Ed.), The Works of Jeremy Bentham (Vol. 1, pp. 358-364). William Tait. google scholar
• BentHam, J. (1843d). Pannomial Fragments. İn J. Bowring (Ed.), The Works of Jeremy Bentham (Vol. 3, pp. 211-230). William Tait. google scholar
• BentHam, J. (1843e). Principles of Penal Law. İn J. Bowring (Ed.), The Works of Jeremy Bentham (Vol. 1, pp. 365-580). William Tait. google scholar
• BentHam, J. (1843f). Principles of tHe Civil Code. İn J. Bowring (Ed.), The Works of Jeremy Bentham (Vol. 1, pp. 297-365). William Tait. google scholar
• Bentham’s Calculus: The Economy of Coercion and Mechanisms of Security | Özel, 2025 google scholar
• Bentham, J. (1843g). Supply Without Burden; or Escheat vice Taxation: Being a Proposal for a Saving of Taxes by an Extension of the Law of Escheat, Including Strictures on the Taxes on Collateral Succession comprised in the Budget of 7th December 1795. In J. Bowring (Ed.), The Works of Jeremy Bentham (Vol. 2). William Tait. google scholar
• Bentham, J. (1843h). Tracts on Poor Laws and Pauper Management. In J. Bowring (Ed.), The Works of Jeremy Bentham (Vol. 8). William Tait. google scholar
• Bentham, J. (1970). Of Laws in General (H. L. A. Hart, Ed.). The Athlone Press. google scholar
• Bentham, J. (2004). ManuaL of PoLiticaL EconomY. İn W. Stark (Ed.), Jeremy Bentham's Economic Writings (VoL. 1, pp. 219-275). RoutLedge. google scholar
• Bentham, J. (2005). Institute of PoLiticaL EconomY. İn Jeremy Bentham's Economic Writings (VoL. 3, pp. 211-266). RoutLedge. google scholar
• Bentham, J. (2021). Extracts from JeremY Bentham's Board-of-PoLice BİLL. İn S. Jacques & P. SchofieLd (Eds.), Bentham on Preventive Police-The unknown story and what it means for criminology (pp. 77-141). UCL Press. google scholar
• BohLender, Matthias. (2007). Metamorphosen des liberalen Regierungsdenkens : politische Ökonomie, Polizei und Pauperismus. VeLbrück wissenschaft. google scholar
• Bozzo-ReY, M. (2017). Indirect LegisLation: it is just a question of time. History of European Ideas, 43(i), 106-121. https://doi.org/10.1080/ 01916599.2016.1251722 google scholar
• Bozzo-ReY, M., Brunon-Ernst, A., & Quinn, M. (2017). Editors' introduction. History of European Ideas, 43(i), 1-10. https://doi.org/10.1080/ 01916599.2016.1251721 google scholar
• Brunon-Ernst, A. (2017). Nudges and the Limits of appropriate interference: reading backwards from J.S. MiLL's harm principLe to JeremY Bentham's indirect LegisLation. History of European Ideas, 43(1), 53-69. https://doi.org/10.1080/01916599.2016.1251717 google scholar
• Brunon-Ernst, A. (2022). Indirect LegisLation in Bentham's Late ConstitutionaL Writings. İn P. SchofieLd & X. Zhai (Eds.), Bentham on Democracy, Courts, and Codification (pp. 237-257). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/DOI: 10.1017/9781009031745.013 google scholar
• Brunon-Ernst, Anne. (2012). Utilitarian biopolitics: Bentham, Foucault and modern power. Pickering & Chatto. google scholar
• CasteL, R. (2003). From Manual Workers to Wage Laborers: Transformation of the Social Question. New Brunswick and London: Transaction PubLishers. google scholar
• CoLquhoun, P. (1800a). A Treatise on the Commerce and Police of the River Thames, etc. Mawman. google scholar
• CoLquhoun, P. (1800b). A Treatise on the Police of the Metropolis etc. Mawman. google scholar
• CoLquhoun, P. (1806a). A New and Appropriate System of Education for the Labouring People etc. J. Hatchard. google scholar
• Colquhoun, P. (1806b). A Treatise on Indigence, etc. J. Hatchhard. google scholar
• Dean, M. (1991). The constitution of poverty: towards a genealogy of liberal governance. Routledge. google scholar
• Dean, M. (2002). LiberaL government and authoritarianism. Economy and Society, 31(1), 37-61. https://doi.org/10.1080/ 03085140120109240 google scholar
• EmsLeY, C. (2005). Crime and Society in England 1750-1900. Pearson Longman. google scholar
• Emsley, CLive. (2007). Crime, police, and penal policy : European experiences 1750-1940. Oxford University Press. google scholar
• EngeLmann, S. (2017). Nudging bentham: Indirect LegisLation and (neo-)Liberal politics. History of European Ideas, 43(i), 70-82. https:// doi.org/10.1080/01916599.2016.1251716 google scholar
• EngeLmann, S. G. (2003). “Indirect LegisLation”: Bentham's LiberaL Government. Polity, 35(3), 369-388. https://doi.org/10.1086/POLV35N 3MS3235524 google scholar
• FoucauLt, M. (1995). Discipline and Punish-The Birth of Prison. Vintage. google scholar
• FoucauLt, M. (2009). Security, Territory, Population-Lectures at the College de France 1977-78 (M. SeneLLart, Ed.). PaLgrave MacmiLLan. google scholar
• GatreLL, V. A. C. (1990). Crime, authority and the poLiceman-state. The Cambridge Social History of Britain, 1750-1950, 243-310. doi:10.1017/ CHOL9780521257909.006 google scholar
• Harcourt, B. E. (2011). The Illusion of Free Markets-Punishment and The Myth of Natural Order. Harvard UniversitY Press.. https://doi. org/10.2307/J.CTVJHZPV2 google scholar
• HimmeLfarb, G. (1970). Bentham's Utopia: The NationaL CharitY CompanY. Journal of British Studies, 10(1), 80-125. https://doi.org/DOI: 10.1086/385602 google scholar
• Hindess, B. (2001). The LiberaL government of unfreedom. Alternatives, 26(2), 93-111. https://doi.org/10.1177/030437540102600201/ASSET/ E170E208-501F-4B41-911C-F05D347153FC/ASSETS/030437540102600201.FP.PNG google scholar
• Hume, L. J. (1981). Bentham and Bureaucracy. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511608971 google scholar
• LavaL, C. (2017). ‘The invisibLe chain': JeremY Bentham and neo-LiberaLism. History of European Ideas, 43(i), 34-52. https://doi.org/10. 1080/01916599.2016.1251718 google scholar
• Lemke, Thoma. (2019). Foucault’s Analysis of Modern Governmentality. Verso Books. google scholar
• Linebaugh, Peter. (1991). The London hanged : crime and civil society in the eighteenth century. London: ALLen Lane The Penguin Press. google scholar Bentham’s Calculus: The Economy of Coercion and Mechanisms of Security | Özel, 2025 google scholar
• Long, D. (1977). Bentham on Liberty : Jeremy Bentham’s idea of liberty in relation to his utilitarianism. University of Toronto Press. https:// doi.org/doi:10.3138/9781487576141 google scholar
• Mack, M. P. (1963). Jeremy Bentham: An Odyssey of Ideas. Columbla UniversitY Press-Heinemann. google scholar
• Marciniak, A. (2015). Politische Sicherheit-Zur Geschichte eines umstrittenen Konzepts. Campus Verlag. google scholar
• Marciniak, A. (2017). ‘Prevention of evil, production of good’: JeremY Bentham’s indirect legislation and its contribution to a new theorY of prevention. History of European Ideas, 43(i), 83-105. https://doi.org/l0.1080/01916599.2016.1251719 google scholar
• McMullan, J. L. (1998a). Policing reform and moral discourse: the genesis of a modern institution. Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies & Management, 21(1), 137-158. doi: 10.1108/13639519810206646 google scholar
• McMullan, J. L. (1998b). The Arresting EYe: Discourse, Surveillance and Disciplinary Administration in Early English Police Thinking. Social and Legal Studies, 7(1), 97-128. https://doi.org/10.1177/096466399800700106 google scholar
• Neocleous, M. (2000a). Fabrication of Social Order: A Critical Theory of Police Power. Pluto Press. doi:10.2307/j.ctt18fs9s7 google scholar
• Neocleous, M. (2000b). Social police and the mechanisms of prevention: Patrick Colquhoun and the condition of povertY. British Journal of Criminology, 40(4), 710-726. https://doi.org/10.1093/BJC/40.4.710 google scholar
• Neocleous, M. (2008). Critique of Security. Edinburgh University Press. https://doi.org/10.3366/edinburgh/9780748633289.001.0001 google scholar
• Özel, A. E. (2024). Toplumsal Düzen Kavrayışının Dönüşümü ve İngiltere’de Önleyici Polisliğin Doğuşu. HUMANITAS - Uluslararası Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi, 12(24), 293-315. https://doi.org/10.20304/HUMANITAS.1524105 google scholar
• Philips, D. (2003). Three «moral entrepreneurs» and the creation of a «criminal class» in England, c. 1790s-1840s. Crime, Histoire & Societes, 7(Vol. 7, n°l), 79-107. https://doi.org/l0.4000/CHS.612 google scholar
• Quinn, M. (1994). Jeremy Bentham on the Relief of Indigence: An Exercise in Applied PhilosophY. Utilitas, 6(1), 81-96. https://doi.org/10. 1017/S0953820800001345 google scholar
• Quinn, M. (1997). The FallacY of Non-lnterference: The Poor Panopticon and EqualitY of Opportunity. Journal of Bentham Studies, 344. Retrieved from https://www.academia.edu/76512894/The_FallacY_of_Non_Interference_The_Poor_Panopticon_and_EqualitY_of_ OpportunitY google scholar
• Quinn, M. (2008). A Failure to Reconcile the lrreconcilable? Security, Subsistence and Equality in Bentham’s Writings on the Civil Code and on the Poor Laws. History of Political Thought, 29(2), 320-343. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/26224008 google scholar
• Quinn, M. (2017). JeremY Bentham, choice architect: Law, indirect legislation, and the context of choice. History of European Ideas, 43(1), 11-33. https://doi.org/10.1080/01916599.2016.1251720 google scholar
• Quinn, M. (2021). Bentham on Preventive Police: The Calendar of DelinquencY in Evaluation of Policy, and the Police Gazette in Manipulation of Opinion. ln S. Jacques & P. Schofield (Eds.), Jeremy Bentham on Police-The unknown story and what it means for criminology (pp. 35-74). UCL Press. google scholar
• Rudan, P. (2016). SocietY as a Code: Bentham and the Fabric of Order. History of European Ideas, 42(1), 39-54. https://doi.org/10.1080/ 01916599.2015.1077147 google scholar
• Valverde, M. (1996). ‘Despotism’ and ethical liberal governance. Economy and Society, 25(3), 357-372. doi:10.1080/03085149600000019 google scholar
• Valverde, M. (2007). Genealogies of European states: Foucauldian reflections. Economy and Society, 36(1), 159-178. doi:10.1080/03085140601089911 google scholar
• Wacquant, L. (2010). Crafting the Neoliberal State: Workfare, Prisonfare, and Social lnsecurity. Sociological Forum, 25(2), 197-220. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/40783391 google scholar
• Zedner, Lucia. (2009). Security. Routledge. google scholar