ABSTRACT
A connection has to be established between the failure of Bentham's reformism and that of his plan for a prison called Panopticon. Indeed, the crowning achievement of Bentham's constitutional doctrine, Constitutional Code, relates closely to his Panopticon projects, which he had undertaken more than 30 years earlier. Transposing the principles of the prison world to the field of political society, he became the precursor of totalitarianism. A parallel must be drawn between Bentham's treatment of the prison system and of democracy. In Bentham's constitutional theory, these two requirements inspire systems of information and visibility which are total and create a metaphorical universalisation of the panoptic paradigm. An entire bureaucracy is given the task of collecting the most varied information, drawing up statistics, interpreting them and being in a position to face all contingencies. The legislator tries to discover the compound of individual satisfactions which will maximise global utility.
