Boğaziçi University | Department of Economics
Econ 411 | History of Economic Thought
Governing the Population:
Malthus’ Theory of
Population and Bentham’s
Panopticon
Boğaziçi University | Department of Economics
Econ 411 | History of Economic Thought
The historical conditions
Industrial revolution and accumulation of capital at the expense of
consumer goods and the well being of the working classes:
(a) the demolishing of the traditional way of living;
(b) the mechanization of life (the Luddites, 1813);
(c) women and children as workforce;
(d) high price of grain, trade restrictions.
In England, in contrast to France, the bourgeois revolution dragged
on and classical political economy became one of the terrains on
which it was fought.
Boğaziçi University | Department of Economics
Econ 411 | History of Economic Thought
Two fault lines fracturing the society
a. The emergence of the proletariat as a collective agency
The end of eighteen century and early nineteen century. The early spread of the predecessors
of modern unions in 1790s. The Combination Act of 1799 against the unionization of workers.
It was justified in the name of preventing monopoly and maintaining competition in labor
markets, but no mention was made of the combinations among employers and the
monopolistic practices of capitalists.
The Speenhamland System and its discontents. The first version of a welfare state. Karl
Polanyi writes on it in his now classic The Great Transformation (1944).
b. The struggle between landowners and the emerging industrial bourgeoisie
The Corn Laws from 1815 until 1846 when the Parliament voted for the total abolition of Laws.
Why were industrial bourgeoisie against corn laws? (1) with lower imported grain prices lower
wages would be possible, relieving the pressure on the profits of the industrialists (2) a market
for industrial goods would be opened in Europe.
Boğaziçi University | Department of Economics
Econ 411 | History of Economic Thought
The two class struggles of Thomas Malthus (1766-1834)
Against the progressive and radical ideas of Condorcet (17431794) and William Godwin (1743-1834), Malthus wrote his An
Essay on the Principle of Population (1798; 1803). His second
book, Principles of Political Economy (1820) shifts the
perspective towards a theory of value and economic
depressions.
In this sense, Malthus’ writings can be divided into two periods.
The first period is his writings on his well-known theory of
populations, and the second period is his interpretation of Adam
Smith’s theory of value, his concept of rent and his theory of
gluts.
Boğaziçi University | Department of Economics
Econ 411 | History of Economic Thought
The two class struggles of Thomas Malthus (1766-1834)
Historical context
The debates
The opponents
Books
1790-1805: The
emergence of
proletariat as
collective agency
“What to do about
the poverty of the
emerging working
classes?”
M. Condorcet,
William Godwin
An Essay on the
Principle of Population
as It Affects the Future
Improvement of
Society, with
Remarks…(1798; 1803)
1815- 1840s: The
struggle between
the landlords and
the industrialists
“The Corn Laws”
David Ricardo
Principles of Political
Economy Considered
with a View of Their
Practical Application
(1820)
Boğaziçi University | Department of Economics
Econ 411 | History of Economic Thought
The Population Explosion
First decennial census was taken in 1801.
Possible causes for the
population explosion:
1. Industrial
Revolution creating
its own labor force
by a demand pull.
2. Improvements in
sanitation,
nutrition, and
housing leading to
a decline in
mortality rate.
Boğaziçi University | Department of Economics
Econ 411 | History of Economic Thought
Social Reformism (1)
The abject conditions of working class and the labor unrest of the
late 18th century had spawned many intellectual champions of the
working class.
Marquis de Condorcet (1743-1794)
1. Precariousness of the incomes of the working poor could be
eliminated by a government fund for the welfare of the aged and
of women and children who had lost their husbands and fathers.
(Social Security)
2. Limiting the amount of credit available to powerful capitalists
and by extending it to ordinary working people, thereby
rendering the latter more independent of capitalists.
Boğaziçi University | Department of Economics
Econ 411 | History of Economic Thought
Social Reformism (2)
William Godwin (1756-1836) argued, contrary to prevailing opinion,
that the defects of the working class was not due to the natural
laziness and depravity of the working class, but rather attributable to
to corrupt and unjust social institutions.
1. Capitalist institutions, particularly private property relations,
were the causes of the evils and suffering within the system.
2. The government in a capitalist system would never redress these
evils because it was controlled by the capitalist class.
Boğaziçi University | Department of Economics
Econ 411 | History of Economic Thought
Malthus’ Theory of Population
Growth Capacity
Instincts of reproduction
Checks to Growth
Preventive: all limitations
on births
Moral
Restraint
Vice
Positive: all causes of
deaths
Vice
Misery
Means of subsistence
1. Man’s natural capacity to reproduce (at a geometric rate) exceeds his capacity to increase
the food supply (at an arithmetic rate).
2. Either the preventive or the positive check is always in operation.
3. The ultimate check to reproductive capacity lies in limitations on the food supply.
Boğaziçi University | Department of Economics
Econ 411 | History of Economic Thought
Moralism of Malthus’ Theory of Population
“A promiscuous intercourse to such a degree as to prevent the birth of
children seems to lower, in the most marked manner, the dignity of
human nature. It cannot be without its effect on men, and nothing can
be more obvious than its tendency to degrade female character, and to
destroy all its most amiable and distinguishing characteristics.” (Malthus
[1803] 1960, 19)
“…carelessness and want of frugality [predominates among the poor.”
(14)
“…even when they have an opportunity of saving they seldom exercise it,
but all that is beyond their present necessities goes, generally speaking,
to the ale-house.” (14)
Boğaziçi University | Department of Economics
Econ 411 | History of Economic Thought
Malthus’ critique of social reformism (1)
1. The poor have no cause to complain about their poverty, for it is but
a necessary consequence of their having bred with excessive rapidity;
the poor can improve their lot only by refraining from early marriage.
2. Redistributive policies on behalf of the poor are harmful, since they
encourage them to multiply, thus aggravating their poverty in the
future.
3. High grain prices merely confirm the fact that the number of people
has outstripped the means of subsistence. Tariffs on imported corn
and high corn prices are beneficial because they stimulate agriculture
and thereby increase the amount of means of subsistence.
Boğaziçi University | Department of Economics
Econ 411 | History of Economic Thought
Malthus’ critique of social reformism (2)
“It is evident truth that, whatever may be the rate
of increase in the means of subsistence, the
increase in population must be limited by it, at
least after the food has once been divided into the
smallest shares that will support life. All the
children born, beyond what would be required to
keep up the population to this level, must
necessarily perish, unless room be made for them
by the deaths of grown persons. [Cont.]
Boğaziçi University | Department of Economics
Econ 411 | History of Economic Thought
Malthus’ critique of social reformism (3)
“To act consistently therefore, we should facilitate, instead of foolishly and vainly
endeavouring to impede, the operation of nature in producing this mortality; and if we
dread the too frequent visitation of the horrid form of famine, we should sedulously
encourage the other forms of destruction, which we compel nature to use. Instead of
recommending cleanliness to the poor, we should encourage contrary habits. In our
towns we should make the streets narrower, crowd more people into the houses, and
court the return of plague. In the country, we should build our villages near stagnant
pools, and particularly encourage settlements in all marshy and unwholesome
situations. But above all, we should reprobate specific remedies for ravaging diseases;
and those benevolent, but much mistaken men, who have thought they were doing a
service to mankind by projecting schemes for the total extirpation of particular
disorders. If by these and similar means the annual mortality were increased… we
might probably every one of us marry at the age of puberty, and yet few be absolutely
starved.” (Malthus [1803] 1960, Vol. 2, 179-180)
Boğaziçi University | Department of Economics
Econ 411 | History of Economic Thought
Bentham’s Utilitarianism (1)
Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832), social philosopher and reformer.
Calculus of pain and pleasure.
“By utility is meant that property in any object, whereby it tends to produce
benefit, advantage, pleasure, good, or happiness (all this in the present case
comes to the same thing), or (what comes again to the same thing) to
prevent the happening of mischief, pain, evil, or unhappiness to the party
whose interest is considered.” (Bentham [1780]1969, 86)
People are essentially lazy.
“Aversion is the emotion—the only emotion—which labour, taken by itself,
is qualified to produce… In so far as labour is taken in its proper sense, love
of labour is a contradiction in terms.” (Bentham 1954, Vol. 3, 428)
Boğaziçi University | Department of Economics
Econ 411 | History of Economic Thought
Bentham’s Utilitarianism (2)
He switched positions from that of defender of laissez faire to that of a reformer.
Two reasons:
1. Savings do not equal investment. Against Say’s
Law. Justifying monetary interventions by the
government: If the government increased the
amount of money in circulation, “the the money
introduced… becomes a source of increasing
wealth” (124).
2. The idea that money has diminishing marginal
utility. Justifying possible redistributionary
schemes.
Say’s Law:
No one would produce, unless that
person wanted to exchange his or her
production for someone else’s
production. Therefore, supply always
creates demand of same magnitude
and the economy will always
eventually reach equilibrium. This view
is, of course, in stark contradiction
with Malthus’ theory of gluts.
All of this was justified under a general utilitarian social philosophy.
Boğaziçi University | Department of Economics
Econ 411 | History of Economic Thought
Bentham’s Panopticon (1)
The panopticon writings consist of series of Letters written in 1787 and two
postscripts written in 1790 and 1791.
“A simple idea in architecture” never
realized in this particular form.
“a new mode of obtaining power of
mind over mind, in a quantity hitherto
without example”
The inspector with his invisible
omnipresence, “an utterly dark spot” in
the all-transparent, light-flooded
universe of the panopticon.
Miran Bozovic. “Introduction: ‘An utterly dark spot.”
In The Panopticon Writings. London: Verso, 1995.
Boğaziçi University | Department of Economics
Econ 411 | History of Economic Thought
Bentham’s Panopticon (2)
1. Spectacle of Punishment
The punishment itself is less intended for the punished, i.e., the guilty person, than
it is for everyone else, i.e., the innocent. Weighing the value of reformation
against that of setting an example.
2. Fiction in the Panopticon
In Panopticon, the inspector exposes himself to the eyes of the prisoners as little
as possible: all of his power derives from his ‘invisibile omnipresence’. The
inspector has to be omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent. The role fiction in
the Panopticon vs. the role of fiction (for deterrence) through Panopticon.
Boğaziçi University | Department of Economics
Econ 411 | History of Economic Thought
Bentham’s Panopticon (3)
3.Gaze and Voice in the Panopticon
The inspector is also the book-keeper. Therefore, if, on the one
hand, there were enough light in the lodge for the inspector
manage the books, he could not effectively perform his invisible
inspection; if, on the other hand, there were not enough light
for him to be visible, then he would be unable to keep his books.
Solution would be to make the lodge translucent, opaque so
that only a shadow, a silhouette will be visible.
“Looking at me even when it does not see me.”
Boğaziçi University | Department of Economics
Econ 411 | History of Economic Thought
Bentham’s Panopticon (4)
4.
An Utterly Dark Spot
Since it is impossible to keep each prisoner under surveillance
“during every instant of time”, the next best alternative is that “at
every instant, seeing reason to believe as much, and not being able
to satisfy himself to the contrary, he should conceive himself to be
so”.
The prisoner cannot see that he is not seen, though he can try to
test it…
Boğaziçi University | Department of Economics
Econ 411 | History of Economic Thought
Panopticism, or the emergence of the disciplinary society (1)
“The Panopticon … must be understood as a generalizable
model of functioning; a way of defining power relations in
terms of the everyday life of men. [The Panopticon] is the
diagram of a mechanism of power reduced to its ideal
form; its functioning, abstracted from any obstacle,
resistence or friction, must be represented as a pure
architectural and optical system: it is in fact a figure of
political technology that may and must be detached from
any specific use. [Cont.]
Boğaziçi University | Department of Economics
Econ 411 | History of Economic Thought
Panopticism, or the emergence of the disciplinary society (2)
It is polyvalent in its applications; it serves to reform prisoners,
but also to treat patients, to instruct schoolchildren, to confine
the insane, to supervise workers, to put beggars and idlers to
work. It is a type of location of bodies in space, of distribution of
individuals in relation to one another, of hierarchical
organization, of disposition of centres and channels of power, of
definiton of the instruments of power, which can be
implemented in hospitals, workshops, schools, prisons.
Whenever one is dealing with a multiplicity of individuals on
whom a task or a particular form of behaviour must be imposed,
the panoptic schema may be used.” (Foucault 1979, 205)