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What-Is-the-Malthusian-Theory-of-Population

The Malthusian Theory of Population posits that population grows exponentially while food supply increases arithmetically, leading to inevitable food shortages and a Malthusian catastrophe. Malthus proposed that population control could be achieved through positive checks (natural disasters, wars) and preventative checks (celibacy, family planning). However, criticisms of the theory highlight that technological advancements and globalization have allowed food production to keep pace with or exceed population growth, contradicting Malthus's predictions.

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11 views

What-Is-the-Malthusian-Theory-of-Population

The Malthusian Theory of Population posits that population grows exponentially while food supply increases arithmetically, leading to inevitable food shortages and a Malthusian catastrophe. Malthus proposed that population control could be achieved through positive checks (natural disasters, wars) and preventative checks (celibacy, family planning). However, criticisms of the theory highlight that technological advancements and globalization have allowed food production to keep pace with or exceed population growth, contradicting Malthus's predictions.

Uploaded by

MD Rapy
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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What Is the Malthusian Theory of Population

Definition of the Malthusian Theory of Population

The Malthusian Theory of Population involves arithmetic food supply growth and exponential
population growth. This theory was first published in 1798 in Thomas Robert Malthus’s piece,
An Essay on the Principle of Population. Malthus believed that the population could be
controlled in order to balance the food supply through positive checks and preventative checks.
These checks led to the Malthusian catastrophe.

Malthusian Theory of Population Explained

Population and Food Control


According to Thomas Malthus, populations grow in geometric progression. A geometric
progression refers to a number sequence in which each term following the first can be found by
multiplying the previous one with a common ratio, which is a fixed, non-zero number. For
instance, in the sequence 2, 6, 18, 54, 162, the common ratio is 3.

Malthus also stated that food production increases through arithmetic progression, which is a
number sequence with a constant difference between consecutive terms. For example, in the
sequence 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, the constant difference is 2. Malthus derived this conclusion from the
Law of Diminishing Returns. Since the population grows through geometric progression and the
food production increases through arithmetic progression, we can conclude that the population
will grow more quickly than the food supply. This will result in a food shortage.

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Population Control : Malthus argued that since the population will be larger than the food
supply, many people would then die due to the shortage of food. He theorized that this correction
would function through Positive (or Natural) Checks and Preventative Checks. These checks
resulted in the Malthusian catastrophe, bringing the population down to a sustainable level.

1.​ Positive or Natural Checks : Malthus believed the imbalance between population
growth and food supply would be corrected by natural forces, such as earthquakes and
floods. He also believed the imbalance would be corrected by human actions like wars
and famines.

2.​ Preventative Checks : In addition, Malthus suggested the use of preventative measures
to control population growth. These included celibacy, late marriage, and family
planning.

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The Malthusian Trap

The Malthusian Trap, also known as the Malthusian Population Trap, refers to the idea that
increased food production as a result of advanced agricultural techniques creates higher
population levels. These higher population levels then lead to food shortages, as the new
population must live on land that was previously used for crops.

Malthus then theorized that even though technological advancement would typically lead to
income gains per capita, the gains wouldn’t be achieved because, in practice, the advancement
creates population growth. A Malthusian crisis is created as the population exceeds the amount
that can be supported by the food supply, and famine and disease will become rampant. Through
the Malthusian crisis, the population is decreased to earlier levels.

In reality, though, population growth has not created the crisis predicted by Malthus. In the
following section, we’ll go over the ways in which the Malthusian Trap has been disproven.

Criticisms of the Malthusian Theory of Population

Population Growth : Malthus’s dire predictions haven’t played out in the real world. For
example, in Western Europe, populations have grown, and food production has risen as well due
to technological advancements.

Food Production : Food production has seen a dramatic increase over the past century, thanks to
multiple technological advancements. In many cases, the food production rate has increased
more rapidly than the population growth rate. For instance, in the 1930s United States, a quarter
of the population worked in the agricultural sector, and the total GDP was less than $100 billion.
But today, less than 2% of the population works in the agricultural sector, and the total GDP is
more than $14 trillion.

Global Trade : Malthus’s theory on the constraints of food production was based on the limited
availability of land at that time. But thanks to globalization, we can now trade goods and services
for food. This results in a rise in the amount of food that a country can consume.

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Calculation s: Malthus didn’t provide calculations for the arithmetic growth of food and the
geometric growth of populations. Since he came out with his theory, experts have pointed out
that the current growth rates are not consistent with the predictions put forth by Malthus.

Ibrahim rafi (111) 18th batch

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