The Theory of Population is a symposium is which demographers and social scientists from the Soviet Union, Hungary, Poland and the German Democratic Republic have contributed and treated population problems and aspects of demography from a Marxist standpoint.

The papers devote much attention to a complex, all-round approach to the study of population, and discuss the methodology of demography and methods of inquiring into demographic processes. The authors make a detailed and circumstantial review of current population problems and consider the demographic outlook for human society.

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This work presents the results of a major project in population studies undertaken by social and natural scientists under the auspices of the Centre for Population Studies of the Economics Faculty of Moscow State University.

The authors have reached very interesting conclusions meriting serious consideration from their analysis of the objective laws and patterns of population development, and their perfecting of the methodology of studying socio-demographic processes. Effective treatment of population problems calls for joint work by a broad circle of social and natural scientists from several fields, and will continue to do so. Only in that way can really new results be obtained in the field of theory and methodology, particularly in studying the interrelations of economic and demographic processes in developed socialist society. Such an approach will make it possible to consolidate the social and economic basis for forecasting population; and the significance of demographic forecasting in macroeconomic planning practice can hardly be exaggerated.

The institution of the scientific specialities of population economics and demography—an outcome of the active theoretical work of Soviet demographers—imposes great obligations on scientists concerned with population studies. And it opens up broad prospects for new creative work in developing Soviet science.

ESSAYS IN MARXIST RESEARCH

Translated from the Russian by
Herbert C. Creighton
Designed by S. Jioyeu

This is a cleaned, optimised version of scan by Ismail, sent to him by InDefenseOfToucans.
From Thomas Mrett’s Archive Collection

THE AUTHORS
E. A. ARAB-OGLY
V. V. BODROVA
A. Y. BOYARSKY
F. BURGCHARDT (GDR)
L. Y. DARSKY
Y. N. GUZEVATY
B. S. KHOREV
G. M. KOROSTELEV
S. A. KOVALEV
V. P. KOVALEVSKY
V. I. KOZLOV
A. Y. KVASHA
A. M. MERKOV
A. A. MINTS
L. OSADNIK (GDR)
N. V. PANKRATYEVA
V. V. POKSHISHEVSKY
E. ROSSET (POLAND)
R. S. ROTOVA
Y. G. SAUSHKIN
B. Y. SMULEVICH
A. P. SUDOPLATOV
V. A. SYSENKO
E. SZABADI (HUNGARY)
B. T. URLANIS
D. I. VALENTEY
E. VALKOVICS (HUNGARY)
A. G. VOLKOV

CONTENTS

Foreword 5
Introduction 7

Section One. Regularities of Demographic Processes 23
Chapter 1. Historical Laws of Population Development 23
Chapter 2. Population Reproduction 49
Chapter 3. Population Distribution 70

Section Two. Methodology of Population Studies 84
Chapter 1. The System of Scientific Knowledge about Population 85
Chapter 2. Population Geography 98
Chapter 3. Ethnical Demography 108
Chapter 4. Sociological Aspects of Demographic Behaviour 120
Chapter 5. Social Hygiene 127

Section Three. Methodological Principles of Studying Demographic Trends 135
Chapter 1. Statistical Methods 136
Chapter 2. Tables of Fertility 157
Chapter 3. Mathematical Models 168
Chapter 4. Economic Age Pyramids 200
Chapter 5. Methods of Factor Analysis 216
Chapter 6. Problems of Demographic Forecasting 221

Section Four. World Population and Resources 228
Chapter 1. World Population Growth 230
Chapter 2. Population and Environment 241
Chapter 3. Energy and Natural Resources 248
Chapter 4. Food Resources 262
Chapter 5. Land Resources 277
Chapter 6. The Outlook for the Growth of World Population 285

Section Five. Current Population Problems 295
Chapter 1. Demographic Investments 295
Chapter 2. Social Production—Personal Needs—Natality 303
Chapter 3. The “Ageing” of Population 313
Chapter 4. Problems of Modern Urbanisation 326
Chapter 5. Demographic Processes in the Socialist Countries of Europe 342
Chapter 6. Population Problems in Developing Countries 354
Chapter 7. “Family Planning” Programmes in Developing Countries 364
Chapter 8. Wars and Population 371

Section Six. Bourgeois Population Theories 384
Chapter 1. The Evolution of Malthusianism 384
Chapter 2. Sociological Theories of Population 394
Chapter 3. The Apologetic Role of Modern Bourgeois Demography 400