Population Theory Final

7/31/2019 Population Theory Final

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Content

INTRODUCTION

Population theories

Early PeriodPre-Malthusian Period

Malthusian Period

Post Malthusian Period

Bibliography


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OBJECTIVES

At the end of the session learnerswill be able to state the views givenby different theorists regardingpopulation.


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Population Theories

The Size and growth of population has been viewed as animportant factor underlying the development of any country.

The population theory can be considered to have emerged onlyin the 18 th century after the work of Thomas Malthus waspublished.

Various theories can be discussed under Early thinkers Pre-malthusian Malthusian and post malthusian periods


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There are two schools of thought:

One thought- More population, more strength.

Other school of thought- More populationmore poverty. More population, moreproblems .


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1. Confucius and other Chinese thinkers: consider population growth in relation to available resources

and the possible checks on this growth.

Confucius main emphasis: Excessive population growth always effect on living standard of

human beings. An optimum relationship between population and agricultural

land Marriage, family and procreation were generally in favor of

population increase

Early thinking on population issues


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3. Ancient Indian

Kautilya (321 -296 NBC) Kautilya emphasized the desirability of a large

population for military and economic power.

Based on Kautilya the Indian thought led topopulation growth.

Even today Muslim countries are not so

comfortable with sterilization . Higher the population growth higher the

production.

Ear y t n ng on popu at on ssues


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4. Ancient Rome Cicero (50 BC) He is known as Roman Empire.

From their writings it appears that theyencouraged procreation by certain privilegeto married couples with children.

A kind of tax to those who did not get marriedand have children.



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They did not bother about high growth rate of population and did not spend much time on theproblems of rapidly growing population.

Cicero an important thinker angrily oppose theidea of communism of wife as a means of

checking population growth.



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Pre Malthusian Theories of Population

Beginning of the 16 th Century to End of 18 th Century:

India and America were explored. Old feudal system collapsed Emergence of powerful states such England , France,

Spain and Portugal.

These changes have some impact on thinking oneconomy and population


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The Mercantilist School All trading nations adopted the economic policy of

mercantilism with a view to increasing national wealthand power by encouraging exports of goods in returnfor gold.

Nations wealth consist in the quality of precious metal

that is gold and silver- need of more work force


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Nicolo Machiavelli and Giovani Botero may beconsidered as the originator of the Malthus.

They explained that population after increasing forsometime can not continue to increase at the samerate; it may grow slowly or may even startdeclining.

The reason behind this is limitations of means of subsistence.


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Thomas Malthus: Theory of PopulationIntroduction

Tall and good-looking, but with ahare-lip and cleft palate


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Population Resources Equation

POPULATION RESOURCES


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Population Resources Equation

Population increasing Diminishing resources (more mouths to

feed and more people to support)

RESOURCES

POPULATION


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Malthuss Life 1766 -1834

1766 -Born at the Rookery in Dorking, South of London. 1784 Entered Jesus College, Cambridge 1791 MA degree

1793 Fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge 1804 ---Professor of History and Political Economy at the

East India Company College . 1818 ----Malthus became a Fellow of the Royal Society 1834--- End of life


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Malthusian Theory

From the middle of the 18 th Century almostall writings on population contained that

population increases more rapidly than foodsupply.

This was elaborated by Malthus whichcame to be known as the Malthusian Theoryof Population .


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The theme of the essay of the Malthus wasmainly to refute the views of Condorcet andGodwin.

He argued that the tendency of population togrow faster in relation to its means of subsistence had led to human misery andplaced several obstacle in the path of humanprogress.


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According to Condorcet All inequalitiesof wealth, education, opportunity, sexwould soon disappear.

Bitterness between nations and races wouldbe no more.

All persons would speak same language. The earth would be bountiful and without

stretch.


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The Central Theme of the Essay

Basic Postulates :

1)Food is necessary to the existence of man

2)The passion between the sexes is necessary


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Geometric and Arithmetic Progression

Population, if unchecked, will double every 25years (an increase in a geometricprogression) where as even under the mostfavorable condition agricultural productsincrease each 25 years only by an equalquantity (increase in an arithmetical ratio)


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Checks to Population Preventive checks : moral restraints and vice

Moral restraints included abstinence from marriage and the onlymode of keeping population on a level with the means of subsistence.

Vice was the prevention of birth of children,

Positive checks :

those brought about by natural causes and called as exclusivelymisery .

those brought about by mankind itself like wars,communicable diseases and epidemics, plague, famine etc.


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Explanation of the Theory

According to him, human society could never be perfected.

He believed that man is a lazy animal, who would lead asatisfied life and procreate as long as his family waswell fed.

However, as soon as he would feel constraints in foodsupply, he would again work hard to provide enoughfor his family.


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Criticism of Malthus Theory

Raised questions onpotential of human population to increase food supply???man's ability to use magic of science and technology ???

Could human society never be made perfect???Hasnt he put undue emphasis on the limitation of supply of land???

Malthus opposed all political, social and economic reforms that didnot aim at controlling birth rate.


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Conclusion Malthus theory of population gained popular after the World War-

II.

Malthus was credited for the first thinker who thoroughly andsystematically applied the inductive method of social science.

This theory made both his supporter and critics realise theimportance of and the need for the collection of information for the study of population

trends and for the investigation into the relationship between the size

&growth of population and social & economic condition.


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POST MALTHUSIAN PERIOD

Neo-Malthusian Theory : Garrent Hardian abiologist at the University of California. According to neo-Malthusian, population growth

must be checked by the use of birth control

devices. But Malthus himself was against of birthcontrol devices.

Neo-Malthusian believed that without any effect

on the sexual pleasure on the couple, the growthof population should be checked. This should bedone with the help of recent devices and methods.


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Malthusian does not see any different betweendesire for sex and also the desire for havingchildren.

Neo-Malthusians makes a distinguish between twodesire for sex and producing children.

According to him, sex desire is something natural,whereas, desire to produce children is based onreligious social and cultural consideration.




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Malthus believed that sexual desire should be controlled by moralrestrains.

Neo-Malthusians believed that no one should suppress sex urgebecause that is bound to create and maintain suffering. There is

every possibility that the people may like to follow evil practices.

Malthus believed that population grows more rapidly than foodsupply and that is natural. According to him, it was almost

impossible to check population growth. Neo-Malthusians believedthat with the help of modern scientific means and methods it ispossible to check population growth and increase food productionas compare with population growth.



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Documents

Population Theory Final