MORE ON MALTHUSIAN AND MARXIST THEORIES OF POPULATION

Even though demography, the science of population, has gained tremendously in the last few decades, both from methodological sophistication and more data, the essential dividing line in the theories of population is still the controversy between Malthusian and Marxian paradigms. The controversy has strengthened mainly due to their roots in two dominant, political philosophies of modern times: rational capitalism versus socialism. All social science thinkers from West, including those critical of Malthus, are attacked by socialists for defending the interests of the capitalist class and providing a misleading theory. To quote:

Bourgeois sociological theories of population are extremely contradictory. On one hand they criticize the positions of Malthus, Spencer, and the Social Darwanists; but on the other hand, bourgeois sociologists, while recognizing the decisive importance of social factors in demographic processes, do not accept the concept of a socio-economic formation. They replace the concept of classes by a vague concept of social stratum. They depict the antagonistic contradictions of capitalism as those of industrial society as well; … (Smulevich, 1978).