Editing Classical liberalism (section)

=== Utilitarianism ===
The central concept of [[utilitarianism]], which was developed by [[Jeremy Bentham]], was that public policy should seek to provide "the greatest happiness of the greatest number". While this could be interpreted as a justification for state action to reduce poverty, it was used by classical liberals to justify inaction with the argument that the net benefit to all individuals would be higher.{{sfn|Mills|p=76}}

Utilitarianism provided British governments with the political justification to implement [[economic liberalism]], which was to dominate economic policy from the 1830s. Although utilitarianism prompted legislative and administrative reform and [[John Stuart Mill]]'s later writings on the subject foreshadowed the [[welfare state]], it was mainly used as a justification for ''laissez-faire''.{{sfn|Richardson|p=32}}