1341Abstract. The population of the global South has more than quadrupled since 1950 which leàd to several consequences. The neo-Malthusian perspective asserts that the consequences of a rapid population growth are mostly negative and include contributing to absolute poverty, rural overcrowding, pressure on physical and social infrastructures as well as undermining the social order, functions of the State and international relations. It is related to the concept of demographic transition and includes anti-natalism implemented through family planning programs. It constitutes the foundation of international policies pursued by several Western governments, primarily of the United States, even though consecutive U.S. Administrations could not espouse this perspective because of political constraints. When this was done in 1970s, ample American technical assistance and financial aid to population programs flew to developing countries, leading the way for many other Western states. Overall, the impact of family planning programs on fertility was substantial, and they proliferated across the world. Anti-Malthusianism operates at a higher level of abstraction since it assumes a positive relationship between population growth and development, which does not have empirical verifications. In 1960s-1970s, the Non-Aligned Movement and the Group of 77 have raised the banner of anti-Malthusianism in their confrontation with the West. Nevertheless, the first United Nations World Population Conference (1974) has reached à relatively brave consensus which was instrumental in defusing the population bomb. Subsequently, that consensus was diluted by delinking a population growth from the need to subdue it through anti-natalist policies. The paramount global issue of a rapid population growth was absent in deliberations and final documents adopted at the United Nations conferences of 1984 and 1994. Concurrently, practical programs keep spreading and developing, but not in all countries where they are particularly needed. The fading of the donor countries’ interest reveals a short-sighted approach, because in some regions of the world, and especially in sub-Saharan countries, the demographic transition is not likely to end soon by itself. In the meantime, a several-fold population increase will jeopardize their development prospects, putting some of them at the edge of humanitarian catastrophes.
REFERENCES
1. World Population Prospects, the 2015 Revision. United Nations. New York, 2015. Available at: http://esa.un.org/unpd/wpp (àccessed 22.03.2017).
2. The Determinants and Consequences of Population Trends: New Summary of Findings on Interaction of Demographic, Economic and Social Factors. United Nations. New York, 1973. xvi, 661 p.
3. Vishnevskii A.G. Mirovoi demograficheskii vzryv i ego problemy [World Population Boom and Its Problems]. Moscow, Znanie, 1978. 63 ð.
4. Reher D.S. Economic and Social Implications of the Demographic Transition. Population and Development Review, 2011, vol. 37 (Supplement), pp. 11-33.
5. Ivanov S. Demografiya sovremennogo mira [Demography of Contemporary World]. Mirovaya Ekonomika v Nachale XX veka [World Economy in the Beginning of the 20th Century]. Grigoriev L. et al., eds. Moscow, Direct Media, 2015, pp. 336-373.
6. Landry A. La revolution demographique: Etudes et essais sur les problemes de la population. Paris, INED-Presses Universitaires de France, 1936, 227 p. Available at: https://books.google.ru/books?id=NxW2ajK9hGEC&printsec=frontcover&hl=ru&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false (accessed 23.03.2017).
7. Notestein F. Population – the Long View. Food for the World. Schultz T.W., ed. Chicago, Chicago University Press, 1945, pp. 37-57.
8. Ivanov S. et al. Population and Socio-Economic Development. Salas R., Valentei D., eds. Moscow, Progress, 1986. 276 p.
9. Vishnevskii A. Demograficheskaya revolyutsiya [Demographic Revolution]. Moscow, Statistika, 1976. 240 p. Available at: http://demoscope.ru/weekly/knigi/dem_revol/dem_revol.html (accessed 01.03.2017).
10. Ivanov S. Demograficheskii perekhod [Demographic Transition]. Narodonaselenie. Entsiklopedicheskii slovar’ [Population. Encyclopedic Dictionary]. Valentei D.I., ed. Moskow, Bol’shaya rossiiskaya entsiklopediya, 1994, pp. 226-238.
11. Caldwell J.Ñ. Demographic Transition Theory. New York, Springer, 2006. viii, 418 p.
12. Vishnevskii A. Demograficheskaya revolyutsiya menyaet reproduktivnuyu strategiyu vida Homosapiens [Demographic Transition Changes the Reproductive Strategy of the Species Homo Sapiens]. Demographic Review, no. 1, pp. 6-33. Available at: https://demreview.hse.ru/2014–1/120991102.html (accessed 19.03.2017).
13. Ivanov S. Snizhenie rozhdaemosti v stranakh Yuga: politika vokrug politiki [Fertility Decline in Countries of the South: Politics Around Policies]. Economic Journal of NRU-HSE, no. 12, pp. 562-585.
14. Population and the American Future. The Report of the Commission on Population Growth and the American Future. Center for Research on Population and Security. Washington D.C., New American Library, 1972. Available at: http://www.populationsecurity.org/rockefeller/001_population_growth_and_the_american_future.htm (accessed 19.03.2017).
15. Meadows D. et al. The Limits to Growth: À Report for the Club of Rome’s Project on the Predicament of Mankind. New York, University Books, 1972. Available at: http://www.donellameadows.org/wp-content/userfiles/Limits-to-Growth-digital-scanversion.pdf (accessed 20.03.2017).
16. Implications of Worldwide Population Growth for US Security and Overseas Interests (The Kissinger Report). National Security Study Memorandum, December 10, 1974. Washington, D.C., National Security Council. Available at: http://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/Pcaab500.pdf (accessed 22.03.2017).
17. Population Growth and Development in the World Economy. Hearing before the Subcommittee on International Trade, Finance, and Security Economics of the Joint Economic Committee Congress of the United States. Ninety-Eighth Congress. Second Session. Washington, D.C., Government Printing Office, 1984. iii, 218 p. Available at: http://www.jec.senate.gov/reports/98th%20Congress/Population%20Growth%20and%20Development%20in%20the%20World%20Economy%20(1269).pdf (accessed 22.03.2017).
18. Policy Statement of the United States of America at the International Conference on Population. Washington, D. C., United States Department of State, 1984. Available at: http://abortion.procon.org/sourcefiles/MexicoCityPolicy1984.pdf (accessed 21.03.2017).
19. Final Act of the International Conference on Human Rights (A/CONF.32/141). New York, United Nations, 1968. Available at: http://legal.un.org/avl/pdf/ha/fatchr/Final_Act_of_TehranConf.pdf (accessed 21.03.2017).
20. Report of the United Nations World Population Conference. Bucharest, 19–30 August, 1974. New York, United Nations Publication, Sales No. E.75.XIII.3, 1975. Available at: http://www.unfpa.org/events/world-conference-population (accessed 21.03.2017).
21. Report of the International Conference on Population, Mexico City, 6–14 August, 1984. New York, United Nations Publication, Sales No.84.XII.8 and corrigenda, 1984. Available at: https://www.unfpa.org/sites/default/files/event-pdf/ICP_mexico84_report.pdf (accessed 01.04.2017).
22. Report of the International Conference on Population and Development, Cairo, 5–13 September, 1994. New York, United Nations Publication No. E.95.XIII.18, 1995. Available at: http://www.unfpa.org/publications/international-conference-populationand-development-programme-action (accessed 01.04.2017).
23. Millennium Declaration of the United Nations (In Russ.) Available at: http://unstats.un.org/unsd/mdg/Resources/Static/Products/GAResolutions/55_2/a_res55_2r.pdf (accessed 22.03.2017).
24. Report of the Inter-Agency and Expert Group on Sustainable Development Goal Indicators (In Russ.) Available at: http://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=E/CN.3/2016/2&Lang=R (accessed 21.03.2017).
25. The Family Planning Effort Index: 1999, 2004, and 2009. Washington, D.C., USAID, 2010. Available at: http://www.healthpolicyinitiative.com/Publications/Documents/1110_1_FP_Effort_Index_1999_2004_2009__FINAL_05_08_10_acc.pdf (accessed 22.03.2017).
26. World Population Policies Database. New York, United Nations, 2013. Available at: http://esa.un.org/PopPolicy/about_database.aspx (accessed 21.03.2017).
27. Accelerating Achievement of the MDGs by Iowering Fertility: Overcoming the Challenges of High Population Growth in the Ieast Developed Countries. Population Facts, 2010, no. 5. New York, United Nations, 2010. Available at: http://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/popfacts/popfacts_2010-5.pdf (accessed 22.03.2017).
Registered in System SCIENCE INDEX
No comments