ABSTRACT
Bentham's cruel and clever cage, otherwise called diabolic by Michel Foucault, illustrates a broader phenomenon: the growing influence of psychologically-based mechanisms of constraint. The chapter argues that this interpretation of Jeremy Bentham's Panopticon idea, or panoptic paradigm, is not only relevant when considering its application to schools, hospitals, workshops and poor-houses, but also extends to its institutional applications in Constitutional Code. Transparency was only required where it could guarantee individual freedom and prevent impunity on the part of public offenders in general, that is, either criminals or public functionaries willing to commit misrule. In Constitutional Code, Bentham adds to the theory of control to examine, a theory of institutional control which owes a lot to the thought of Montesquieu. The chapter explains Bentham's institutions that the age of social control, or of social orthopaedics, is also definitely the age of mistrust towards rulers.
