ABSTRACT
This chapter explores that Foucault's insistence on the various dimensions of the Panopticon can be of use to historians trying to grasp the status of Bentham's projects by inscribing them into dynamic historical processes and agencies, instead of dismissing them as utopian or dystopian. Foucault's highlights the continuity between utopia and programme, or between a philosopher's plans and political realisations. It is only by focusing on the people who implemented Bentham's ideas that the programmatic dimension of the Panopticon writings can be fully understood and their final failure placed in perspective. The new code required a clear topographical separation between suspects arrested preventively and convicted criminals, which implied an ambitious programme of prison-building. Dumont was convinced that Bentham's books could provide a blueprint for institutional and social reform in post-revolutionary European countries, and, once in a position of influence, he set out to apply his ideas to Genevan politics.
