Malthusianism: What Is This Political And Economic Theory?
Malthusianism is a political and economic theory which proposes that the population is growing at a rate that is incompatible with the food resources we have available. Although it is a theory that emerged more than two centuries ago, its concepts continue to be discussed and remain somewhat valid.
Below we explain what Malthusianism is, what its main concepts are and how it has transformed to the present day.
Malthusianism is based on the proposal that The world population tends to increase faster than the food supply therefore, scarce resources will have to be shared among more and more individuals.
It was developed by Thomas Malthus in a 1798 text called An essay on the population principlein which studies population dynamics, its exacerbated growth, and its relationship with the availability of resources that they would have to satisfy basic needs.
Malthus was skeptical towards the positivist theories that were very popular in his time, and that sought the perfectibility of the human being, praising advances and the dissemination of knowledge as a source of well-being and freedom for the future.
Given this trend, Malthus argued that the development of humanity was limited by the pressures exerted by accelerated population growth in contrast to low food availability.
Due to the above, According to Malthus, it is necessary to create consistent controls on population growth, which offer an alternative to the demographic explosion and counteract the lack of resources. For Malthus, these controls can be of two types, preventive or positive.
Malthusianism is a perspective that significantly impacted the policies of England at the beginning of the 19th century, especially from a legislative debate where protectionist policies towards agriculture were generated; sector that had been affected after the Napoleonic wars.
Preventive control and positive control
Preventive control, according to Malthus, consists of deciding individually in favor of stopping population growth. That is, it is voluntarily limit oneself and make rational decisions, for example, before creating a family
These decisions must be based on the monthly income received and the real possibilities of ensuring a good quality of life for the new members of a family.
On the other hand, exercising positive control of the population is about acting in the face of the direct consequences of the lack of preventive control. That is, once society has not voluntarily limited its population growth, balance is inevitably established through disease, war and famine.
According to Mathus, the positive control act more intensely towards lower-income population groups where the percentage of infant deaths is higher, as well as unhealthy living conditions.
Preventive control and positive control eventually close the imbalance between the high population level and the low availability of resources, but this is at the cost of creating conditions of marginalization and poverty that according to Malthus are inevitable.
Technology and population in poverty
Other alternatives related to this are technological development that can increase, for example, agricultural development, and also migration understood as distribution of the population in different cities
However, according to Malthus, technology only provides momentary relief and a temporary improvement in living standards. For its part, migration would not end up redistributing the population, since the general conditions of the destination places seemed very severe.
In the same sense, Malthus he was against the idea that the rich have to distribute their wealth to the poor people because this could keep poor people in a passive position.
Likewise, it could make people in poverty have the feeling that they actually have the real possibility of financially supporting a family, with which families could grow even more.
Neo-Malthusianism: changes in population control
Malthusianism has evolved as population needs change. Thus a new perspective called neo-Malthusianism has emerged, which has focused especially on the economic policy and population history of England
The demographic historian EA Wrigley is considered one of the intellectuals who has taken up Malthusianism with greater force. He has proposed that before the industrial revolution, England had an “organic economic system”, characterized by diminishing returns where subsistence levels were characterized by the use of wood and other organic materials as an energy source.
In modern England, the cost of living and population were related, but as the population began to increase, price indices increased as well.
Likewise, he proposes that fertility was the main determinant for population growth, families were very extensive until the first half of the 19th century and although the fertility rate began to decrease, exacerbated growth is still expected
To study this relationship between fertility, neo-Malthusian literature involves comparative studies, especially between the English and French experiences. At least until the French Revolution, the latter was characterized by a high-pressure system, while England adjusted through nuptiality and preventive control.
Thus, in neo-Malthusianism and in other topics of economic policy, positive and preventive control measures and how they have been transformed over time continue to be discussed.
