A tentative discussion on the objective necessity of the socialist population plan]

In a socialist system a new problem being encountered is whether or not to implement planned management in human reproduction, and whether or not it is possible. Marx and Engels foresaw that human reproduction would undergo basic changes. In following Marx, Socialist China has brought about for the first time in history planned management in human reproduction. According to the author, the objective necessity of the population plan stems from public ownership of the means of production, is compatible with planned development of material production and conforms to Socialist economic laws. 3 main general points are made: 1) the public ownership of the means of production supplies the objective conditions for population planning; population reproduction in a system of private ownership is the basis for class opposites, but the public ownership of the means of production erases this type of opposites; 2) population planning is an important integral part of national economic planning; man, the unification of production and consumption, is the primary element in economic activity; 3) population planning embodies the demands of basic socialist economic laws. Basic socialist economic laws determine the character of social production and hence determines the character of population production.     

Malthus and the Philippines

Jose D. Drilon, Jr., president of Food Terminal, Inc., and a former undersecretary of the then Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources in the Philippines, attributes the widening gap between food supply and demand in developing countries to the high rate of population growth and to the inability of poor countries to produce more food. This situation, in which many countries are facing hunger, was predicted by Thomas Robert Malthus as early as the 16th century. The primary concern of Malthus was the problem of making the food supply keep pace with a constantly growing population. The question arises as to how reliable is Malthusian theory. According to Drilon, Malthus was correct in predicting that population would expand at a rate not previously imagined but that the other aspects of Malthusian theory might not hold true due to the intervention of human beings. For example, it is hoped that the imbalance between population growth and food production can be minimized in the future. In the Philippines there is good reason to be concerned about the validity of Malthusian theory. Although the country's growth rate has been reduced from 3.01% in 1970 to 2.6%, it is still quite high. However, the Philippines has actually been producing sufficient food to feed its population. To make the Philippines self-sufficient in rice, the government initiated the Masagana 99 program in May 1973. Technical and material resources from the public and private sectors were provided to aid rice producers. A nationwide information campaign was also launched to familiarize the farmers with the new methods of rice culture. Masagana 99 has been costly but effective. Since the launching of the program, rice production in the Philippines has been increasing at 7% a year. The government is now using the Masagana 99 formula to increase the production of other crops.     

Studying Marxist theory on population and initiating a new situation in demographic research]

Within Marxist ideology are important population theories that led to the establishment of demography and the work of population control in China. Marxist population theory should be studied in order to build a scientific system of concepts in population theory. Both Marx and Engels spoke of the relationship between human reproduction and material production, and of how the modes of social development determine population development. Marx also established the view that a normal population and surplus population both were mutually adaptable with a certain production basis. In any historical period, the total population is not determined subjectively by man's wishes, but is a product of historical development. The Maoist population theory is derived from Marxist theory. Borrowing from historical materialism, Mao said that of all the objects in the world, man is the most precious. Nevertheless, he continued, while China's large population is good, it brings many difficulties; thus, population must be controlled. The study of demography should follow Marxist and Maoist population theories, even though the study of Marixst population theory is relatively recent and much remains to be learned.     

On the relationship between population and means of subsistence]

Population is the basis of all social activites and social production. Population growth and development must have a definite means of subsistence to meet its cultural and material needs. The larger the population of a country, the greater is its demand for consumer goods and, likewise, the yield of its means of subsistence should be greater. Population brings about the unification of production and consumption. Furthermore, the ratio of population to the means of subsistence must be maintained at an appropriate level. Population growth must be slower then the growth of the means of subsistence in order to ensure continuous economic expansion and population increase. However, there are some people, notably Malthus, who believe that the balance between population growth and the means of subsistence should be equal. It is crucial to note differences between Marxist and Malthusian points of view. The basic outlook on the nature of the relationship between population and the means of subsistence is different. For Malthusians, it is a matter of the number of people and the quantity of the means of subsistence. For Marxists, the relationship is a historically determined social relationship. For Malthusians, population development is the primary force behind social development, i.e., the imbalance between population and the means of subsistence stems from social ills. Marxists differ from this in believing that population cannot be divorced from material production. Malthusians believe that population surplus derives from a population increase that is greater than an increase in the means of subsistence. Marxists believe a population surplus is also an historically determined social relationship. The Malthusian outlook for the future of population and the means of subsistence is pessimistic, whereas the Marxian view embodies the optimism of revolution.     

The Marxist outlook on population]

Marxist population theory and world population are discussed. From his study of capitalist population theory Marx concluded, "In capitalist reproduction, poverty produces population," thus rejecting Malthusian population determinism theory and developing economic determinism. According to UN statistics, world population has stabilized since the middle of this century after having doubled every hundred years for the last 300; population in the developed countries showed a positive decrease and average net population growth of the developing countries also decreased. The premise of this paper is that population grows according to social economy development. During the last several hundred years, world wealth increased much faster than population; in the last 200 years alone, the population has increased fivefold, but wealth fortyfold. In addition, world population analysis reveals an inverse relationship between wealth and population in the developed and developing countries: the poorer the country, the greater the population. From this perspective, the study of population must begin with surplus labor. Accumulation of surplus production is the foundation of continuous social development and the basis for population growth. The major difference in methods between capitalist countries and China is that the capitalist-planned fertility affects the individual family while Chinese-planned fertility has the whole nation in mind. Human fertility is determined by the economic system. Private ownership determines the private nature of fertility and public ownership determines the public nature of fertility. Thus population development is determined by the accumulation of social wealth.     

Population and Poverty in Classical Theory: Testing a Structural Model for India

There has for many years been debate over the relationships between population growth rates and poverty. India is a country which provides a good testing ground for hypotheses about this relationship because since Independence a relatively high proportion of the population have lived in poverty; and there also exist reasonable data. This paper develops a simple structural model to investigate the relationship between population growth and poverty in particular, testing a series of hypotheses developed from the work of Marx and Malthus. The data are analysed at state level, and attention is drawn to the problems that this might cause as behaviour is typically determined at the individual household level. The results show that agricultural productivity and the process of landlessness are better predictors of poverty at a state level than the population growth rate. It is argued that the results fit better with the views of Marx than those of Malthus.     

Studying Marx's discussion on the position and role of population in social and economic development]

According to Marx and Engels, population is the premise for material life. The difference between man and animal is that man, in order to exist, must have a means of subsistence; thus, his 1st historical activity is to produce these means while at the same time reproduce himself. The function and position of population is to serve as the basis and primary force for all social productive activities. Population further serves as the basis for its own material production. All human relationships and functions, regardless of form or situation, influence material production. Actually, population itself is a kind of productive force as well as consuming force. Population produces material goods which ultimately are used by the population. Hence population is the unification of production and consumption. That is, population's activities consist of production and consumption. According to Marx, accumulated capital regulates population development; at the same time, population development influences the accumulation of capital. Population growth must be the basis for the realization of accumulated capital. In addition, population structure influences the accumulation of capital. Within a single nation, the larger the laboring class, the more prosperous is the country. Among countries, however, this principle is not necessarily so. Marx also believed that raising production rates is the basic way to increase accumulated capital. And, a necessary condition for raising production rates is to raise the quality of population.     

A Marxian-Malthusian view of poverty and development

Abstract The names of Marx and Malthus are often linked in disjunction but never in conjunction. Nevertheless, the thesis argued in this paper is that the two historically dominant theories of poverty, the Marxian and the Malthusian, are not inconsistent, but complementary; that a union of the two yields a basic fourfold typology of social classes by differential ownership of property and differential fertility; that this typology can also be viewed as a way of disaggregating the meaningless average of 'GNP per head' in a way which gives social content (i.e. a distributional dimension) to the concept; that the typology provides more satisfactory definitions of 'development' and 'overpopulation'; and that these four categories are improved, or usefully supplemented, by replacing the flowof income by the stock of wealth in each case. Also the universality of the typology is discussed along with some preliminary empirical considerations.     

Some problems on objective laws of population]

We must realize the existence and the importance of objective laws of population to understand the practical law. Population growth is determined by physiological and sociological factors. Furthermore, the sociological factor is determined by the production of the society. Until production reaches a certain level, the direction of population growth in both quantity and quality parallels production. After the population reaches a certain level, both the production and the quality of population growth continue to increase, but the quantity of the population growth decreases. Production requires both labor and material. Their relationship is expressed as the objective law of simple reproduction and expanded reproduction. The rapid development of technology and production in capitalistic societies results in unemployment. This "excess" population is a product of the capitalistic system. The rapid development of technology and production in a socialistic society results not in unemployment but in shorter working days and a higher living standard. The objective law of population growth is not transformed into a law of comparative population excess but into a unique socialistic population law--the formation of a highly civilized communistic working people.     

A tentative discussion on the reproduction of population in China]

Population reproduction is a physiological phenomenon necessary to continue the human race, replacing the older generation with a new one. Population reproduction is also closely related to material production. Both are mutually restricted and supportive of each other. Population reproduction can be divided into 2 types: 1) short life span and rapid generation replacement or high birth rate and high mortality rate, and 2) long life span and slow generation replacement or low birth rate and low mortality rate. Since 1949 China has significantly reduced the mortality rate because of the improvement of our health system and working conditions and the increased living standard. The birth rate, however, still remains high because we are a developing country and our levels of education, science, and technology are quite low. This intermediate stage of low mortality rate but high birth rate also existed in most developed countries for several decades. China's large population and high population growth rate severely inhibit the development of social production and the achievement of the "Four Modernizations." The only way to resolve this contradiction of population reproduction and development of productivity is to control the population growth. Family planning and advocation of 1 child per couple are important strategic tasks in realizing the "Four Modernizations."     

Malthus on Godwin’s of population

A number of the issues raised by Godwin in his Enquiry Concerning Political Justice recur in subdued form in Of Population. These are issues that Malthus himself considered only to interpret them differently. Most outstanding of the points of difference between the two were: (1) the augmentability of the food supply, which Malthus put far below Godwin’s estimate; (2) the rate of growth of population which Godwin believed to be negligible and Malthus to be potentially great; (3) man’s disposition to control his numbers when necessary, regarding which Godwin was much more optimistic than Malthus; (4) the interpretation each put upon the constraining role of institutions. The two men had more in common than is usually assumed.     

Family planning and economic development in Shifang County]

According to Marx, population either hinders or expedites economic development. During the late 1950s and early 1960s, Shifang County's population grew unchecked. In the 1960s its annual rate of population growth was higher than the national average. Because the growth of material goods was insufficient in supporting the increase in population, the national economy suffered. In 1977, of those Shifang families in debt to the production brigade, over 80% were multiple children families. Some of these families owed over 1300 yuan after 10 years. Obviously such families cannot be counted on to expand the economy or to increase family incomes. Between 1971 and 1981 when Shifang County began family planning, the average annual rate of growth was lower than the national average. At the same time, material production gradually matched population reproduction, expediting economic development. If, with the current age structure (32.19% are aged 0-15 years; 4.95% are over 65 years; average age is 28.41 years), each family has only 1 child, then the rate of natural growth from 1981-2000 will be 3.6% annually. A yearly decrease in population would enable the County to build up pension funds, save on food, maintain the current standard for acreage allotment and expand accumulated capital.     

The new point in population theory: some questions in the current demographic textbooks]

The current population theory in China emphasize that human reproduction must keep pace with the production of goods and services. The author of this paper challenges this theory and believes that the relationship between these two kinds of production, human reproduction should take the principal place. Production of goods and services must first meet the needs of people. Keeping population growth in pace with production of goods and services is of secondary importance. The demographic transition from high fertility and high mortality to low fertility and low mortality in developed country was not caused by poverty, hunger, and surplus of the labor force, and it was not the end result of forcing population growth to stay in pace with material production. Increasing productivity to provide abundant goods depend on improving the quality of the population. When the purpose of consumption is not only for survival, demands for material goods and leisure will take precedence over demands for children. An-emphasis on keeping population reproduction in pace with the production of goods and services tends to ignore the importance of increasing productivity which is the key to the improvement of living standards.     

Giving the population component its proper position]

In the discussion of the population component and its relationship to social development, we have to note the close relationship between material reproduction and the reproduction of human beings themselves. The unity of these reproductions is a necessary condition for social existence and development. In the past, whenever there was a problem of overpopulation, the tragedy of wiping out large numbers of the population also took place. This kind of tragedy eventually solved the problem of overpopulation and brought back a normal condition for economic development. A cycle like this happened continuously in the past. Under a socialist system today, the situation has been very different. The method includes a conscious adjustment and planned birth control in order to curb the speed of the population growth. Generally speaking, production patterns determine the development of the population growth. Under a certain production pattern, the development of the population reproduction is also dominated by the consumption pattern. A change in the consumption pattern will definitely have a great impact on the birthrate. A comprehensive plan is needed for population growth, and population control should match economic development. In a longterm plan, the population growth plan should be based upon a strategy for economic development and the changes which took place in the process of population reproduction. In short-term plan, practical measures aare needed to control the population growth in order to achieve harmony between the population and the economy.     

Corn and crisis: Malthus on the high price of provisions

In 1799 Malthus spent six months in Scandinavia. There he witnessed the extreme deprivation, misery, and mortality that were once the common accompaniments of a bad harvest. On his return to England he found that the topic of the day was the exceptionally high price of bread, which threatened both political turmoil and human suffering. In the event, suffering even among the very poor was far less than in Sweden, though the increase in the price of the chief bread grain was greater. Malthus was intrigued by this apparent paradox. In An investigation of the cause of the present high price of provisions, published in 1800, he resolved it using arguments similar to those developed recently by Amartya Sen in his exposition of the concept of “entitlements.” In spite of his principled opposition to the poor laws, Malthus conceded that their effectiveness in transfering purchasing power to those most in need was a major reason for the limited impact of the dearth.     

人口与经济:从历史到现实的认识

人口与经济问题是人类社会长期关注的问题之一 ,也是人口经济学最重要的研究内容。本文对自马尔萨斯人口理论建立以来的有代表性的人口经济理论进行了回顾 ,这些理论主要包括 :马尔萨斯人口论与悲观主义人口经济理论 ;长期停滞论和乐观主义人口经济理论 ;低水平均衡陷井论和临界最小努力命题 ;适度人口论与可持续发展理论 ;以及人力资本论与新增长理论。在此基础上 ,对人口经济理论演进的特点进行了总结 :研究内容与不同时代所面临的主要社会经济问题紧密相关 ;研究领域日益宽泛 ;研究视野从发达国家扩展到发展中国家乃至全球范围 ;研究方法和研究思路的进步与完善。     

A brief discussion on the effect of religion and feudal superstitions on China's population growth]

According to Marxism, population development is subject to the determination of production means under certain social and historical conditions, but it is also influenced by ideology, religions, and other factors. China is a country with numerous religions and traditional superstitions. Their impact on China's population growth cannot be underestimated. All religions and feudal superstitions have a role in the increase of the population, and they oppose birth control and abortion. Similarly, traditional feudal concepts of having more children for good fortune, ancestral worship, and filial piety also encouraged early marriage and having more children, and they have contributed to population growth. On the contrary, "individualism" practiced by Buddhist monks and nuns, the "sacred war" believed by Islamic people, and the offering of human sacrifices by many primitive religions, and the murdering of baby twins have served to reduce the population. Most of the religions and feudal superstitions are in favor of increasing the population. The popularity of Buddhism in the past was caused by an oversupply of the labor force. Many farmers became Buddhist monks as a way to earn a living. Since liberation, unhealthy religions and feudal superstitions have been prohibited but their everlasting infulence upon the people cannot be ignored. Uncontrolled population growth is harmful to the nation's economy and improvement of people's livelihood. In family planning work, attention should also be given to the prevention of interference from religions and feudal superstitions in people's ideology.     

A preliminary discussion of population law]

Population law is basically a kind of social law and it has a system of very rich content. Population law is subject to the influence of both nature and society. Nature has a certain influence and function on the population, including its natural restricting force on the population, such as the life and death cycle, metabolism, and continuation of life. In addition, the natural environment also has a restricting force on the population; people have to live on water, air, sunshine, earth, and other natural resources. People whould have to follow fixed natural laws in order to live, or the continuation of life would be in jeapordy. Society also has some influence on population law and its restriction on the population is mainly through the means of production. On the one hand, it is the function upon the population from the nature, characteristics and condition of productivity. On the other hand, it is the function upon population from production relations. Socialist population law is a major branch of the entire population law. In this particular branch, the main contents include shared individual production and material need and a population development plan which deals with employment, population distribution, and other fundamental problems.     

Production functions and population theory

The persistence of the population problem in many developing countries' especially in Asia, must mean that the relation between population trends and productivity has to be kept continually under review. In recent years the economists' interest in this relation has shifted away from the Keynesian stagnation analysis, with its emphasis on the influence of population trends on the level and composition of consumption and investment, to a reconsideration of their influence on production. It is a striking testimony to the influence of Malthus that his theory is still under active consideration and that it frequently serves as starting point, as it does for Professor Belshaw, for an analysis of the economics of population. Divorced from its particular context, in which value judgements particularly distasteful to many commentators abound, and reformulated in terms of modern production theory, it clarifies the main issues, by showing what facts are required and what logic demands in order to provide a useful answer to practical problems of policy. Readers of the first two chapters of Professor Buquet's book will find ample confirmation of the sterility of much of the debate regarding optimum populations which developed largely from differences of opinion about definitions of “good” and “bad” economic criteria for policy than from faults in logic. The debate continues and the posthumous career of Parson Malthus still occasions even personal abuse! It would be difficult, however, to accuse Professor Belshaw of taking sides in the Malthusian debate. He takes the Malthusian analysis for what it is worth, shows where it fits the facts and where it does not, provides convincing evidence of a Malthusian problem in Asia by a skilful round-up of well presented statistics, and then, instead of committing himself to a forecast of what is likely to happen in Asia, he illustrates through the modern theory of production what are the pre-conditions for a removal of the population problem. This is surely a sensible procedure and contrasts favourably with the sibylline utterances of a number of distinguished amateur social scientists.     

On the absolute or relative basis of perception: The case for middle class identification

Previous studies of the relationship between social structural changes and individual-level perceptions have focused on perceptions of ‘well-being’. Those studies conclude that relative position in the social structure (e.g., more or less income compared to others) determines perceived ‘well-being’. In contrast to those studies, this research focuses on social structural changes and perceptions of middle class identification and concludes that absolute position in the social structure (e.g., a certain amount of income in itself) determines perceptions of middle class identification.