Population Politics [Hardcover]

Virginia D. Abernethy (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 21, 1993

The United Nations has stated that the 1990s are the last possible decade for regulating fertility rates so that populations do not grow beyond the earth's capacity to sustain human life. Demographic experts are confounded by the persistence of high fertility in light of a number of circumstances that were expected to cause a decline, such as international dissemination of technical assistance and capital; improved health care conditions to lower the risk of infant mortality; increased opportunities to develop literacy in men and women; the democratization of governments; and several decades of liberal immigration and refugee policies favoring third-world nations. Population Politics brilliantly dissects the paradigm responsible for the counterproductive efforts of nations and international agencies. Virginia D. Abernethy, Ph.D., a renowned anthropologist, shows why support offered in the name of a "demographic transition" has been misdirected; why policies which do not encourage caution and restraint hamper the shift to lower fertility. Ireland, Indonesia, Cuba, China, Turkey, and Egypt are a few of the countries to which Dr. Abernethy looks, showing how economic, sociocultural, and agricultural factors have been both a cause of population growth and a way-of attempting to stabilize population size. The author stresses that motivation is the key to birth control and, using historical and cross-cultural data, hypothesizes that perception of limited resources is the chief stimulus. Renewed interest in limiting family size is seen in third-world countries, such as Sudan and Burma, where traditional patterns of delaying first births and increasing the interval between having one child and the next are reviving. Dr Abernethy proceeds with a fascinating critical perspective on population growth in the United States, relating it to twentieth-century industrialization, urbanization, fluctuations in the economy, and an "open door" immigration policy. All sectors of soc

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A splendid critique of how U.S. foreign aid and liberal immigration [policy] result in population growth here and abroad." -- Donald L. Huddle, Rice University, Houston, Texas

"Addresses one of the most vexing issues of our time-why after five or more decades of 'helping' poor countries improve their standard of living, is poverty still the rule? In light of Abernethy's facts, leaders in the United States cannot be excused from rethinking policies with respect to immigration and foreign aid. This book provides a fresh look at classic and neoclassic views of overpopulation." -- Kingsley Davis, The Hoover Institution, Stanford, California --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 330 pages
• Publisher: Basic Books (March 21, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0306444615
• ISBN-13: 978-0306444616
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.6 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,889,182 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Empiric Data Inconsistant with Demographic Transition Model, June 21, 2002

By 

Joseph Roubidoux (Baltimore MD) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Population Politics (Paperback)

The essential point of this work is the Demographic Transition Model (DTM) is false and worse is contributing to above reasonable fertility rates in many countries and an over all rate of positive population growth world wide. The author does an excellent job of putting forward both the strong case for the DTM (education and affluence => zero growth) and the weak case for the DTM (education and affluence => some reduction in growth). She then shows that niether contingency is supported by various important sources of empirical data. Even worse, policies based on the DTM may even increase fertility. The arguments put forward are coherent,cogent, and reasonably sound. If the DTM is false then this has very far ranging implications for all sorts of ecconomic and aid policies . But more importantly,if the DTM is false there are extremely dire consequences for the health of humanity and the environment. This will mean that the much vuanted "logistic curve" of the DTM will not come to pass and population may easily over shoot ten billion (e.g. will not level off via birth prevention). The issues and arguments put forward in this work are really the essential bench mark for future discussion.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Family subsidies only cause more poverty, April 11, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (Colorado, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Population Politics (Hardcover)

This book supports the arguments economic conservatives have intuitively had against altruistic national and international welfare schemes - they only encourage more irresponsibility, even larger families in already impoverished lands, and only encourage immigration to welfare states such as the United States and Western Europe -- spreading the misery of low wages due to oversupply of farm and blue collar labor and increasingly white collar and even high technology degreed job categories. This is in addition to the fundamentally immoral and monstrous nature of such redistributionist schemes.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Most important book written in my life-time., November 8, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Population Politics (Hardcover)

Quoting from Abernethy's book: "Americans are too careless in protecting their own heritage and too ready to impose western culture on others." "Organization is one of the linchpins of prosperity, and it depends on stability and security. But maintenance of order within a democratic framework ultimately depends on the consent and consensus of the governed. Without a core of common values, order depends upon coercion and the criminal justice system. Public safety in today's American cities comes at the cost of erosion in treasured liberties such as freedom from unreasonable search and seizure -- the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution. And the shift toward state coerciveness will probably be irreversible so long as the numbers outside the law, or in disagreement with fundamental values, keep growing."