ABSTRACT
This chapter utilizes liberty and the principles of utility as a proxy for Jeremy Bentham's theory of liberal citizenship. His political theory is largely an articulation and defense of the terms that typically serve as the elements of liberal models of citizenship. The chapter demonstrates that Bentham treats the workhouse not as a denial but as a contribution to the liberal citizenship of the indigent. Bentham's theory of state intervention is bound up with distinctive liberal conceptions of liberty and citizenship. Bentham attached the consequentialist judgments to his arguments about the function of the state. The actions of a "legitimate" government are guided by the principle of utility rather than by a consideration for the protection of natural rights. "Poverty is the state of everyone who, in order to obtain subsistence, is forced to have recourse to labor.
