ABSTRACT
The late John Dinwiddy has provided us with the clearest statement of the standard and pervasive view of Jeremy Bentham's democratic politics. In his seminal essay "Bentham's Transition to Political Radicalism, 1809–1810", one of the most cited articles on Bentham's politics of the past twenty years, Dinwiddy countered Mary Mack's argument that "the French Revolution was decisive in making Bentham a democrat", "a full-fledged radical English democrat". This brings us to the issue of the influence of James Mill on Bentham's later advocacy of political reform, the so-called "transition" to full-fledged political radicalism occasioned by the beginning of their collaboration. Bentham, on several occasions, jotted down marginals and other fragments on the "mischiefs" of political reform. The movement for political reform experienced a resurgence in Britain in the second half of the first decade of the new century. The chronology of the developing relationship between Mill and Bentham lends credence to this version of events.
