The Malthus Factor: Poverty, Politics and Population in Capitalist Development

276 Pages·1998·14.871 MB·English

by  Eric B. Ross

critique
of the way
Malthusian
thinking
has
in (api
influenced
Development
modern
development
policy

About the Author
Eric B. Ross is an anthropologist who was educated at the University of
Pennsylvania and subsequently Columbia University. For many years he
taught at various North American universities, including Mount Holyoke
College, the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and the University of
Florida. In 1986 he was appointed a Senior Lecturer at the University
of Huddersfield in the UK, before moving to the Institute of Social
Studies in the Hague in 1992.
He is the author and editor of a number of works, including Beyond
the Myths of Culture: Essays in Cultural Materialism (New York: Academic
Press, 1980) and Death, Sex and Fertility: Population Regulation in Pre-industrial
and Developing Societies (New York: Columbia University Press, 1987).
Other Zed Titles on Population and Development
A. Adepoju (ed.), Family, Population and Development in Africa
Asoka Bandarage, Women, Population and Global Crisis: A Political-Economic
Analysis
Braidotti, Charkiewicz, Hausler and Wieringa, Women, the Environment
and Sustainable Development: Towards a Theoretical Synthesis
S. Correa, DAWN, Population and Reproductive Rights: Feminist Perspectives
from the South
Peter Custers, Capital Accumulation and Women’s Labour in Asian Economies
A. Hardon and L. Hayes (eds), Reproductive Rights in Practice: A Feminist
Report on the Quality of Care
Hardon, Mutua, Kabir and Engelkes, Monitoring Family Planning and
Reproductive Rights: A Manual for Empowerment
Petchesky and Judd (eds), Negotiating Reproductive Rights: Women’s Perspectives
across Countries and Cultures
Visvanathan, Duggan, Nisonoff and Wiegersma (eds), The Women, Gender
and Development Reader
The Malthus Factor
Population, Poverty and Politics
in Capitalist Development
ERIC B. ROSS
@
ZED BOOKS
London ¢ New York
For Reuben and Mimi
The Malthus Factor was first published by
Zed Books Ltd, 7 Cynthia Street, London N1 9JE UK,
and Room 400, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010, USA in 1998
Distributed in the USA exclusively by St Martin’s Press, Inc.,
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010, USA
Copyright © Eric B. Ross 1998
The tight of Eric B. Ross to be identified as the author of this
work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act, 1988
Typeset by Lucy Morton & Robin Gable, Grosmont
Cover designed by Andrew Corbett
Printed and bound in the United Kingdom
by Biddles Ltd, Guildford and King’s Lynn
All rights reserved
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ross, Eric B.
The Malthus factor : poverty, politics and population in capitalist
development / Eric B. Ross
p- cm.
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
ISBN 1-85649-563-9 (hb). — ISBN 1-85649-564-7 (pb)
1. Malthus, T. R. (Thomas Robert), 1766-1834. 2. Overpopulation—
Economic aspects. 3. Poverty. 4. Capitalism. 5. Economic
development. I. Title.
HB863.R67 1998 9829913
338.9—dc21 CIP
ISBN 1 85649 563 9 (Hb)
ISBN 1 85649 564 7 (Pb)
Contents
Acknowledgements Vil
Introduction
1 Politics and Paradigms: The Origins of Malthusian Theory
Toward and End of the Old Poor Laws 11
Enclosures, Corn Laws and the Defence of Property 13
Malthus in the Age of Industrialisation 21
Toward a New Poor Law 26
2 Ireland: The “Promised Land” of Malthusian Theory? 31
English Colonial Rule and the “Limits of Subsistence” 35
The Ascendancy of the Potato 38
Scarcity in the Irish Export Economy 39
Clearances and “Over-population” 42
The Making of the Great Famine 45
The Aftermath of the Famine: The Clearances Continue 48
The Crisis of 1879: Famine and Protest 50
Modernisation and the Demise of Subsistence Agriculture 52
3 Malthusian Transformations: From Eugenics
to Environmentalism 59
The Emergence of Eugenics 59
Immigrants and Radicals 66
Eugenics, Birth Control and the Decline of Midwifery
in the United States 69
Toward a Eugenic State 71
From Eugenics to Environmentalism 73
The Political “Tragedy” of the Commons 73
Malthusianism, Demography and the Cold War 79
The Birth of the Official Cold War 80
Notestein, the Demographic Transition and the Cold War 87
The Chinese Revolution and the Perils of Modernisation 91
Militarising Malthus: The Career of William Draper 95
The Life and Death of Land Reform 105
Wolf Ladejinsky and Pre-emptive Land Reform 106
The Philippines, Land Reform and the Cold War 112
Land Reform and Counter-Revolution in Guatemala 119
Population, Cattle and Clearances in Central America 127
Deforestation Instead of Land Reform 129
False Premises, False Promises: Malthusianism and
the Green Revolution 137
The Rockefeller Foundation and the Origins of the Green
Revolution 139
The Ford Foundation and the Cold War 144
The Ford Foundation Goes to India 148
Malthusianism in India 154
The Technology of Non-Revolutionary Change
and the Demise of Peasant Agriculture 163
The Seeds of the Green Revolution 164
The Impact of the Green Revolution in Mexico 170
The Migration of Rural Labour 175
The Political Economy of US Farm Surpluses 177
Agricultural Modernisation in Colombia 180
Synthetic Nitrogen in War and Peace 187
The TVA, Munitions and the Post-war Market for
Fertilisers 189
Rationalising the Green Revolution 194
Contemplating an Alternative 197
Conclusion Malthusianism after the Cold War:
The Struggle Continues 200
The Globalisation of Garrett Hardin 201
The Malthusian Ecology of Global Conflicts 205
The New Malthusian Fears of Immigration 210
The Contradictions of Sustainable Development 213
Privatising the Global Commons 216
Beyond Malthus 221
References 224
Index 254
Acknowledgements
Like most books, this one has changed immeasurably since its original
conception, and, like most such projects, it remains unfinished, at least
in its author’s mind. It arrived in its present form through a long process
of intellectual encounters, with the materials and ideas out of which the
book is composed; with my students at the Institute of Social Studies
(ISS), with whom, more than with anyone else, I have shared many of
those ideas; with a few special ISS colleagues, who gave me hope that
academics can sometimes be truly meaningful in a highly political world;
and with the exigencies of life in general.
Among the students I want to thank for their encouragement and
friendship are: Ranjit Drivedi, Philomen Harrison, Alex Izurieta, Kara
Johnston Molina, Daniel Koster, N.C. Narayanan, Nina Orlova, Babette
Resurrecion, Edsel Sanjor, Imani Tafari-Ama and Maria Piedad Villaveces.
Academic life is not generally a place where genuine intellectual
comradeship thrives. Ashwani Saith has been the exception that proves
the rule. This in no way diminishes my gratitude, however, to special
people within the ISS community who, in one way or another, often
against the odds and sometimes unwittingly, helped to create the intel-
lectual environment in which this work developed. Among them ate
Loes Keysers, Wicky Meynen, Rene Pittin, Ken Post, Graham Pyatt,
Peter Waterman and Ben White. Some people simply were good friends
at the right time; they include Avril Digby, George Groenewald, Jolanda
Kaloh and Emiliano Ruiz.
It is also incumbent on me to note that this book originated within
the framework of the Population and Development programme at the
ISS, which was then a part of a global training programme of the
UNFPA. Despite this, the ideas expressed here were never intended to
reflect the thinking of that organisation. The freedom to develop my
own ideas owes much to the intellectual integrity of the director of the
global programme, Dr Mohammed Masouz. I will always be grateful to
him for his support and confidence.
I want to thank Barbara MacDermott, for her political commitment,
which would never allow me to take any comfort just in being an
academic. I hope she will always understand how important this has
been.
My parents, Julian and Sylvia Ross, died too soon to see this book,
but I hope it honours their ideals and the struggles which shaped them.
In small measure, it also pays belated homage, on my father’s behalf, to
the memory of his youthful friend Aaron Lopoff, who died in Spain in
the struggle against fascism.
Above all, because my parents never expected me to repay anything
I owe them, but only to reinvest it in my children, I dedicate this book
to Mimi and Reuben. Their strong passion for justice has been my chief
inspiration and strength and is my greatest source of hope for the
future.
Enc B. Ross
The Hague, 1998