Marxist Theory of Population

The Marxist scientific theory on the development of population and the intrinsic relation of population with society, economy and environment.

It was founded by Marx and Engels in the mid-19th century on the basis of a critique of the bourgeois theory of population. At that time, the capitalist system was already predominant in major countries of the West, the fundamental contradictions of capitalism were exposed day by day, economic crises occurred periodically, and the demographic question and the resulting social problems were becoming more and more serious. Bourgeois scholars, starting from the natural attributes of man, interpreted the production of population from the point of view of instincts and arrived at crazy conclusions. For example, the so-called law that food grows in an arithmetic progression, that population grows in a geometric progression, and that food can never catch up with population growth. Marx and Engels analyzed the law of population development in the dialectical relation between population and economic development from the standpoint of the materialist conception of history and starting from the social attributes of man, and established a scientific theory of population.

The main contents of the Marxist theory of population. First, the theory on the two kinds of production. The determining factor in history is, in the final instance, the production and reproduction of the immediate essentials of life. This, again, is of a twofold character. On the one side, the production of the means of existence, of articles of food and clothing, dwellings, and of the tools necessary for that production; on the other side, the production of man himself, the propagation of the species. The social organization under which the people of a particular historical epoch and a particular country live is determined by both kinds of production: by the stage of development of labor on the one hand and of the family on the other. The two kinds of production belong together, reciprocally condition and promote each other, together push forward the development of human society and write the history of human society. This is the basis of Marxist theory of population. Second, the development of population depends on the state of the social mode of production. Different modes of social production have their distinct laws of growth of population as well as growth of surplus population. Each epoch and each society has a particular law of population and there is no abstract universal population law appropriate all societies. Third, man is the unity of producer and consumer. As a producer, man creates social wealth and pushes the development of human production and social progress forward; as a consumer, man must continue to consume material means in order to maintain the continuity of mankind. As a producer, man needs to have certain labor-capacity and other conditions, but as a consumer, man is unconditional; no one can do without eating, drinking and other consumption for a moment. Therefore, under certain conditions of the productive forces, it is necessary to keep a balance between production and consumption. Fourth, concerning the relation between population and social development. Population size and growth are not the determining factors of social development, but they do affect it to a certain extent, i.e., push forward or fetter the development of the productive forces of society. Population is the foundation and the subject of the entire social act of production. What is required for all forms of surplus labor is growth of population; of the laboring population for the first form (absolute surplus-labor); of population generally for the second (relative surplus-labor), since it requires the development of science etc. Population appears as the basic source of wealth. Fifth, revealing the law of relative surplus population under the capitalist system. The surplus population under the capitalist system exists, generally, not in regard to the quantity of the means of life, but the means of employment, the actual demand for labor. Sixth, concerning the principle of planning and procreation of population. That is, the necessity of a planned development of population under the socialist system, advocating the harmonious development of population reproduction and resources and environment.

The Marxist theory of population has laid the foundation for scientific population studies, made the theory of population become a real science, provided the theoretical ground for people to correctly understand and solve the demographic question, and the theoretical basis for formulating population policies.