Content

INTRODUCTION

Population theories
Early Period

Pre-Malthusian Period
Malthusian Period Post Malthusian Period

Bibliography

OBJECTIVES
At the end of the session learners will be able to state the views given by different theorists regarding population.

Population Theories
The Size and growth of population has been viewed as an important factor underlying the development of any country. The population theory can be considered to have emerged only in the 18th century after the work of Thomas Malthus was published. Various theories can be discussed under
Early thinkers Pre-malthusian Malthusian and post malthusian periods

There are two schools of thought:

One thought- More population, more strength.

Other school of thought- More population more poverty. More population, more problems .

Early thinking on population issues

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

2. Greek Thinkers: Plato, Aristotle _ favour of population growth. Celibacy was punishable
and who had three or four sons were rewarded. _emphasized the quality of population and maintaining the size which was appropriate for the city-state.

Roman thought: _ Romans needed an expanding population for the

conquest, power and empire.

Early thinking on population issues

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 to population growth. Even today Muslim countries are not so comfortable with sterilization . Higher the population growth higher the production.

Early thinking on population issues

4. Ancient Rome Cicero (50 BC) He is known as Roman Empire. From their writings it appears that they encouraged procreation by certain privilege to married couples with children. A kind of tax to those who did not get married and have children.

Early thinking on population issues

They did not bother about high growth rate of population and did not spend much time on the problems of rapidly growing population. Cicero an important thinker angrily oppose the idea of communism of wife as a means of checking population growth.

Pre Malthusian Theories of Population

Beginning of the 16th Century to End of 18th 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 on economy and population

Pre Malthusian Theories of Population

The Mercantilist School
All trading nations adopted the economic policy of mercantilism with a view to increasing national wealth and power by encouraging exports of goods in return for gold. Nations wealth consist in the quality of precious metal that is gold and silver - need of more work force

Pre Malthusian Theories of Population

Nicolo Machiavelli and Giovani Botero may be considered as the originator of the Malthus. They explained that population after increasing for sometime can not continue to increase at the same rate; it may grow slowly or may even start declining.

The reason behind this is limitations of means of subsistence.

Thomas Malthus: Theory of Population

Introduction
Tall and good-looking, but with a hare-lip and cleft palate

By: Sharmila Shrestha , M.Sc Nursing, 1st year

Population Resources Equation

POPULATION

RESOURCES

What happened next?

Population Resources Equation

Population increasing Diminishing resources (more mouths to feed and more people to support)
POPULATION

RESOURCES

Malthuss Life 1766-1834

1766 -Born at the Rookery in Dorking, South of London. 1784Entered Jesus College, Cambridge 1791MA degree 1793Fellow 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

Malthusian Theory
From the middle of the 18th Century almost all writings on population contained that population increases more rapidly than food supply.
This was elaborated by Malthus which came to be known as the Malthusian Theory of Population .

The Principle of Population

Between 1798 and 1826 Malthus published six editions of his famous treatise, An Essay on the Principle of Population, updating each edition to incorporate new material, to address criticism, and to convey changes in his own perspectives on the subject.

The theme of the essay of the Malthus was mainly to refute the views of Condorcet and Godwin.

He argued that the tendency of population to grow faster in relation to its means of subsistence had led to human misery and placed several obstacle in the path of human progress.

 According to Condorcet All inequalities of wealth, education, opportunity, sex would soon disappear. Bitterness between nations and races would be no more. All persons would speak same language. The earth would be bountiful and without stretch.

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

Geometric and Arithmetic Progression

Population, if unchecked, will double every 25 years (an increase in a geometric progression) where as even under the most favorable condition agricultural products increase each 25 years only by an equal quantity (increase in an arithmetical ratio)

Malthus' theory was based on the assumption that the power of population is much greater than the power of the earth to provide subsistence for man.
In his own words 'passion between the sexes is an inevitable phenomenon' hence, when unchecked, population would grow at such a high rate that it would outstrip food supply. Population invariably increases where the means of subsistence increase unless prevented by some very powerful and obvious checks.

Checks to Population
Preventive checks: moral restraints and vice
Moral restraints included abstinence from marriage and the only mode 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 exclusively misery . those brought about by mankind itself like wars, communicable diseases and epidemics, plague, famine etc.

Explanation of the Theory

According to him, human society could never be perfected. He believed that man is a lazy animal, who would lead a satisfied life and procreate as long as his family was well fed. However, as soon as he would feel constraints in food supply, he would again work hard to provide enough for his family.

Explanation of the Theory

contd...

This might lead to an increase in agricultural production to provide for all, but at the same time man would be back to his complacent stage, where all his needs would be fulfilled.

This would start the cycle of overpopulation and food shortage, all over again.
Malthus validated his theory on moral grounds that suffering was a way of making human beings realize the virtues of hard work and moral behavior.

Impact of theory
Charles Darwin acknowledged, that he was already aware of the 'struggle for existence' among different species of plants and animals. However, it was only after he read Malthus' work where he realized that animals in their struggle to survive, retained the favorable features that would help them adjust to the environment, and lost those that were of no use to them. Thus the Theory of Natural Selection was born.

Criticism of Malthus Theory

Raised questions on
potential 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 did not aim at controlling birth rate.

Conclusion
Malthus theory of population gained popular after the World WarII. Malthus was credited for the first thinker who thoroughly and systematically applied the inductive method of social science.

This theory made both his supporter and critics realise the importance 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.

POST MALTHUSIAN PERIOD

Neo-Malthusian Theory: Garrent Hardian a biologist 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 birth control devices. Neo-Malthusian believed that without any effect on the sexual pleasure on the couple, the growth of population should be checked. This should be done with the help of recent devices and methods.

POST MALTHUSIAN PERIOD

Malthusian does not see any different between desire for sex and also the desire for having children. Neo-Malthusians makes a distinguish between two desire for sex and producing children. According to him, sex desire is something natural, whereas, desire to produce children is based on religious social and cultural consideration.

POST MALTHUSIAN PERIOD

Malthus believed that sexual desire should be controlled by moral restrains. Neo-Malthusians believed that no one should suppress sex urge because 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 food supply and that is natural. According to him, it was almost impossible to check population growth. Neo-Malthusians believed that with the help of modern scientific means and methods it is possible to check population growth and increase food production as compare with population growth.

In the context of Nepal

How could this theory impact our country??

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Population 501, Paper 1, Principles of Demography, Dikshanta Pustak Bhandar, Kirtipur, Kathmandu, Nepal. P.P 20-36 Population 504, Paper IV, Population Dynamics of Nepal , Dikshanta Pustak

Bhandar, Kirtipur, Kathmandu, Nepal. P.P 34

Pantha Ritu, Sharma Bharat Raj, Population size, growth, and distribution.p.p.37 P Shrestha Devendra Trends, patterns, and structure of economically active population. pp.341 Demographic cycle retrieved from ttp://www.traveluniversity.org/general/geography/population/demographic-cycle.html retrieved on 23/03/010 Biographies. Retrieved from www.blupete.com. Retrieved on 1.07.010