Jeremy Bentham and the Neoclassical and Neoliberal Traditions: Architect or Adversary?

This article reclaims Jeremy Bentham from the trend of characterizing him as an intellectual inspiration for neoclassicism and neoliberalism. It demonstrates that, although Bentham’s early thought subscribed to both ontological and methodological individualism, he later revised this perspective. In the early 19th century, Bentham developed a theory of ‘psychological dynamics’, asserting self-interest as a universal axiom. Individuals calculate their interests within historically situated power dynamics, influenced by their social location. This insight led Bentham to construct a theory of social ontology in which individual development was conceived as co-constitutive with social structures. Institutions were reconceptualized as vestiges of elite interests, necessitating radical constitutional reform. Thus, while Bentham’s early work provided a methodological framework later appropriated by neoclassicism and neoliberalism, his mature thought aligns more closely with the radical traditions of the 19th and 20th centuries, making him the antithesis of the neoliberal worldview.