CAPE®

THEORIES OF POPULATION
MALTHUSIAN AND NEO-MALTHUSIAN
LESSON 2

Directed by
REMONE L. FOSTER
 OBJECTIVES
At the end of this lesson, you should be able to answer the following
questions:
• What is the Malthusian theory of population?
• What are the main tenets of the Malthusian theory?
• What are the criticism of the Malthusian theory?
• Can the Malthusian theory be applied to the Caribbean?
• What is the Neo-Malthusian theory of population?
• What are the main tenets of the Neo-Malthusian theory?
• What are the criticisms of the Neo-Malthusian theory?
• Outline the differences between the Malthusian and Neo-Malthusian
theory.
 WHY ARE THE THEORIES OF
POPULATION IMPORTANT?
• There are various theories of population:

(a) The Malthusian theory

(b) The Neo-Malthusian theory
(c) The Marxists theory
(d) The Demographic Transition Model
(e) The limit growth theory

• The theories of population influence the way people understand and interpret
questions involving population.
• They are generally concerned with the causes and consequences of population
growth and transitions.
THE MALTHUSIAN THEORY

• Postulated by Thomas Robert Malthus

• He was an English clergyman and
economists
• In 1798, he published “Essay on the
Principles of Population” and relied on
the population transitions he observed in
English society during the initial stages of
the Industrial Revolution
 TENETS OF THE MALTHUSIAN
THEORY
• Human population was growing quickly but food supply was not growing at
the same rate As food supply is dependent on fixed land, increases in such food
supply can only be made in a simple, additive fashion by bringing new lands
under cultivation. To give a mathematical perspective to his observation, he
proposed that population if unchecked increases geometrically (1, 2, 4, 8, 16) as
oppose to food that grows arithmetically (1, 2, 3, 4, 5).
• People have an innate urge that impels them to reproduce. If people did not
learn to control their vices then overpopulation would occur and bring on the fall
of humanity.
• Misery, hunger and poverty were inevitable unless humans appreciate moral
restraints thereby accepting strict limitations of the frequency of sexual intercourse
• There were only two (2) solutions for controlling population – the positive checks and
the preventive checks. Preventive checks would include abstinence from sexual intercourse
and postponing marriage until after twenty-five years old. Malthus did not condone birth
control for religious reasons. Positive checks would include war, famine, pestilence and
diseases and would be a direct result of increased population growth.

• Malthus thought that if the poor were allowed to feel the “great pain” of poverty, then the
poor would take steps to avoid the great pain by having smaller families. He was against
welfare programs because welfare only encouraged the poor to remain poor.

• He therefore blamed the poor for their own poverty and was of the view that they played a
major role in excessive population growth.
WAS MALTHUS RIGHT?

• Malthus’ theory is significant because it considers the effects of excessive

population growth.
• Malthus’s theory has some significance in African and Asian states.
Recent famines, droughts, civil war and poverty in African states as
Ethiopia, Kenya and Angola that have reduced agricultural output might
suggest Malthus correct.
• Furthermore, the rapid aim to reduce birth rates in China in the 1980s and
the high levels of poverty produced by excessive population growth in
China and India would also suggest that the Malthusian theory is still
relevant.
 CRITICISM OF THE MALTHUSIAN THEORY
• Malthus did not approve of birth control and contraceptives as these were vices by
themselves and favoured “moral restraint”. This was not effective at all.
• Marx was of the view that the Malthusian theory favoured the ruling class as moral
restraint was only to be adopted by the working and lower class according to Malthus.
Malthus was therefore justifying the rules and privileged of the elites.
• The implied assumption embedded in the moral restraint doctrine was that the poor are
the ones who are immoral, and the rich are not. An interesting and unintended
consequence of Malthusian doctrine is that it helped spread the knowledge of
contraceptives although he was against it.
• Malthus had no faith in the longevity of the industrial revolution and failed to foresee the
Agrarian Revolution that would have greatly increased food production.
• Man has proven that he is capable of controlling his numbers, such as in china with the
one child per family policy.
• Marx and Engels criticized Malthus for looking at his theory wrongly. What he saw as the
problem of the pressure of population on the means of production was actually that of the
pressure of the means of production on populations.
 Malthus theory may have its place in the
demographic studies of the Caribbean because
there is evidence that the region’s population
Can Malthus has increased significantly over the years.
Further, with a dependency on foreign imports
theory be and a legacy of mono-cropping, the region is
often on the brink of food insecurity
applied to the (Beckford, 1972; Craig, 1982). Malthus’s
theory helps us to appreciate the effects of
Caribbean? population changes on the region,
but there is evidence that the theory is
limited for the following reasons:
• Malthus focused mainly on sexual reproduction as the main means of population
growth. Historically, there is evidence that the region’s population has increased
mainly through migration (Marshall, 1982).
• Although the region had in the past a great dependency on foreign imports, there
is evidence that the region’s government have implement food production
programs. According to the WFO, countries such as Trinidad and Tobago and
Jamaica have seen a massive increase in food production due to increased
technology, fertilization and great skills in agriculture. Arthur Lewis (1954) under
his theory of “Industrialization by Invitation” implored Caribbean governments to
invest in local agriculture and this has been adhered to. Malthus theory of
population growth undermining food production may not be so appreciated in the
region.
• Caribbean people, according to Harewood (1972), have adhered well to fertility
control methods and this is especially true of women. In his studies of Trinidad
and Tobago, he argued that more women are aware of birth control and this has
indeed helped to prevent rapid population growth.
• The doctrine of moral constraint would not find an ideal nexus with
Caribbean people due to our history of plantation slavery and African
Retention. M.G. Smith (1962) and Franklin Frazer (1939) were of the view
that plantation slavery had undermined the reproductive activities of
Caribbean men. As the position of men was loose and uncertain, they
became promiscuous. Herskovits (1942) added that Caribbean men have
retained a strong, yet varied, desire for polygamy and have become quite
promiscuous.

• There is evidence that poverty is not caused in the region merely by

overpopulation as Malthus would put it. Patricia Anderson (2002) mentions
that factors such as matrifocality, high cost of living, poor educational
background and even poverty itself are causes of poverty in the region.

• Some Caribbean people are highly dependent on welfare programs and their
eliminations would cause greater evils in society.
 NEO-MALTHUSIAN THEORY
• The Neo-Malthusian accepts the basic Malthusian premise that population
growth tends to outstrip food supply and went a step further to argue that
population growth will ultimately outstrip all natural resources
• Paul Elhrich, for example, mentioned that the population in developing
nations has increased significantly creating a “population bomb” that has
begun to outstrip resources.
• However, unlike Malthus, they believe that birth control methods, and not
moral restraint, are appropriate checks to population growth. Neo-
Malthusians have also adopted Marx’s position that developed nations are
the true cause of poverty in less developed nations by consuming almost 4/5
of the share world’s resources.
EVALUATION OF THEORY
• It is evident that the Neo-Malthusians offer better strategies for population control
than Malthus did.
• They argue that Malthus had mistaken the desire to have children with the desire
for sexual pleasure. For this reason, the Neo Malthusians were of the view that a
radical view on contraception is needed.
• Additionally, these theorists took into consideration the position of the Marxists.
• Solutions to high population growth include: (a) Family-planning policies
(limiting the number of children in families); (b) Official- aid from the west
should be used to finance birth-control programmes and (c) Promoting the use of
contraception through the aiding of health education and media programmes.
 CRITICISM
• Like Malthus, the Neo-Malthusians have failed to predict the growth
of agriculture and the ability of men to recycle and reuse valuable
resources.
• The Neo-Malthusians failed to appreciate the effects of contraceptives
on the degeneration of women as it can cause mental, physical and
moral suffering for some women (Sinhan et al, 1984).
• Dependency theorist would reject the view that western countries
should invest in less developed nations as they would argue that this is
reason they are undeveloped in the first place.
APPLICATION TO THE CARIBBEAN
• Neo-Malthusian theory can successfully be applied to the Caribbean as
there has been a massive growth in the region’s population which has
caused poverty and lower standards of livings.
• There is evidence that Caribbean women have come to appreciate
fertility control methods and family planning as postulated by the Neo-
Malthusians.
• There is evidence that increased population growth undermine
development and strain limited resources
-

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