GUIDE TO THE PHILOSOPHY 1938 - 1947.pdf - Rare Books at ...

516
POLITICS
In answer to this question Bentham put forward a number
of suggestions with the object of bringing the pressure
of public opinion continuously to bear on the government.
First, there must be universal suffrage; thus every man and
woman should have a chance of making his wishes felt.
Secondly, the legislative body must be re-elected annually
in order to ensure that the representatives of the people
would be kept in touch with public opinion. Thirdly,
Parliament should be regarded as a body of delegates
rather than of representatives, delegates, appointed for
special purposes, being conceived to be more directly
under the control of those who appoint them than repre-
sentatives who, elected for a term, may during their period
of office "go as they please" without reference to those
whom they are supposed to represent. Upon a governing
body which is in essence a delegate body the King, the
House of Lords and the Established Church are excres-
cences and Bentham, therefore, advocated their abolition.
His ideal form of government is, then, a republic consisting
of one House of delegates who are required to present
yearly accounts of their delegacy to those who appointed
them.
Bentham's conception of Sovereignty as residing in the
majority of a community leads to a number of other
consequences. Among the most important of these is his
repudiation of Locke's proposal for a separation of legislature
and executive. If the Sovereignty of the people is
to be maintained the executive .must, he insisted, be
directly under the control of the parliamentary assembly
of delegates, who were themselves subject to popular
control. He recognized, however, that Ac executive
must be large and would inevitably tend to grow larger.
Bentham was one of the first to conceive of the function of
the governing body in a community as that of regularly
and continuously making laws; for, if the object of government
is to promote the* greatest happiness of the greatest
number, fresh legislation will need continuously to be
passed with a view to bringing in to being an ever greater