Perspectives on Development and Population Growth in the Third World

Perspectives on Development and Population Growth in the Third World

Perspectives on Development and Population Growth in the Third World Ozzie G. Simmons Fordham University The Bronx, New York PLENUM PRESS NEW YORK AND LONDON

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Simmons, Ozzie G. Perspectives on development and population growth in the Third World I Ozzie G. Simmons. p. cm. Bibliography: p. Includes index ISBN-13: 978-1-4684-5516-8 e-isbn-13: 978-1-4684-5514-4 DOl: 10.1007/978-1-4684-5514-4 1. Developing countries-population. 2. Developing countries-economic policy. 3. Economic development. I. Title. HB884.5S6 1988 338.9'009172'4-dc19 88-19866 CIP 1988 Plenum Press, New York Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1988 A Division of Plenum Publishing Corporation 233 Spring Street, New York, N.Y. 10013 All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher

To my wife Charlotte

Foreword D Until the early to mid-1970s, social scientists in the fields of population and development were largely going their own ways. Demographers relied almost exclusively on demographic transition theory as their paradigm for understanding the role of development in population change and fertility decline. Conversely, most development economists and other specialists were certainly aware of the constraints placed upon development objectives by population growth. However, the main development theories paid little attention to population and the implications of population growth for development. Indeed it was not until after the World Population Conference in Bucharest in 1974 that the interaction of population and development became a serious and purposive theme for social scientific study. Accordingly, since about the mid-1970s, an extensive literature in the field of population and development has been generated. And in 1975, under the auspices of The Population Council, the journal Population and Development Review was founded, a journal which in the past decade has developed into the premier publication in the world for work in this area. But our understanding of development as it refers to change in Third World countries remained fragmented. Moreover, our understanding of the linkages and interactions between population and development was very limited. It is in this regard that Ozzie Simmons's Perspectives on Development and Population Growth in the Third World will certainly have an impact. This extraordinarily important book endeavors to review past and current thinking in the fields of population and development. Professor Simmons is all too aware that even today there is yet no commonly accepted conceptual framework for us to use to understand better the relationships between development policy and population growth. But, he notes, available knowledge does point to recurrent and important linkages, and these in turn are useful departure points for the conceptual and empirical work that remains to be done. And it is in the last chapter of his book that Simmons identifies the tasks that still confront theory and research in the field of population and development. vii

viii FOREWORD But the contributions of this superb book go considerably beyond the relevant and important discussions in the last chapter. Professor Simmons guides us through a maze of definitions of development and then articulates the historical context within which development perspectives may be viewed. He presents and assesses the various perspectives that have dominated development thinking, and considers specifically problems of and prospects for equity-oriented development policies. Demographic transition theory, as well as alternative frameworks for understanding population and fertility change, is next considered. Then he analyzes a number of relevant development sectors (natural resources, health, the employment of women, and education) that influence and are influenced by population growth and change. As already noted, in the final chapter, Simmons reviews and highlights the tasks comprising the research agenda in the field of population and development. These tasks are set forth following a fine review of the various positions assumed by scholars in recent years about the effects of population growth on development. He notes that if the view that population growth is detrimental to development is to continue to be accorded credence, then there is an urgent need for careful and focused empirical research and study on the nature of the interactions between population growth and both economic and social development. This is especially important given the increments of population still in store for the world, i.e., population momentum, as well as the gains in development that have yet to be attained in Third World countries. In my estimation, two particularly noteworthy points about Simmons's book are his arguments calling for (1) an articulation of quantitative and qualitative analyses, and (2) the investigation of development and demographic variables among the different strata in a country. With respect to the first point, he claims justifiably that if research were designed to collect national- and community-level data on the one hand, and individual- and household-level on the other, the findings would have the potential of substantial application for policy recommendations. Regarding the second, he stresses the importance of investigating relationships among the different occupational, socioeconomic, and cultural groups within a country. Simmons notes that a combined research methodology employing quantitative and qualitative procedures would enable the investigator, for instance, to focus on how changes in incomes and welfare affect reproductive behavior among different groups in the population based on social class, residence, kinship, occupation, ethnicity, and religion. He tells us that research could be designed to test ongoing or projected experimental and innovative program interventions so as to determine more precisely their demographic impacts.

FOREWORD ix Without doubt our understanding of the interaction and relationship between population and development will be significantly enhanced by a careful reading of Simmons's excellent book. He reviews and synthesizes for demographers the basic features of development economics and for development economists he provides a fine overview of the knowledge base of demography. But, moreover, he attempts to do in his book what no scholar in the past has been able to do successfully: to identify, discuss, and synthesize the linkages and intersections between development and population. In my opinion, he more than accomplishes this laudable task. University of Texas Austin, Texas DUDLEY L. POSTON, JR.

Preface D For a number of years, I left academia and worked in Latin America and subsequently in Southeast Asia in Ford Foundation programs to help strengthen human and institutional resources in those regions in the fields of population research and training, encompassing the relevant social sciences as well as the biomedical sciences. During most of that period, "population and development" served mainly as a slogan for those persons and agencies engaged in international population assistance who wanted to disseminate the message that rapid population growth was impeding economic and social development in the Third World. Not much more than a decade ago, scholars began to consider carefully the complex and difficult questions involved in assessing the implications for processes of development of the determinants and consequences of population growth. A great deal has been published since then on population and development. When I returned to academia in the early 1980s, I had an unparalleled opportunity to read widely in the literature on both development and population change. Had I known when I worked abroad what I learned from this reading, I might not have had the courage to undertake that work. A number of journal articles and edited collections have made valuable contributions to our understanding of the enormously complex interrelationships between population and development. This book attempts to bring together in one discussion a review of the relevant bodies of literature and a systematic treatment of the principal questions and issues that need to be addressed in this field, as well as to provide a historical perspective on how they have been addressed. This book is intended for scholars and their students in the several social science disciplines who are concerned with the issues of population and development. But a wider audience is envisaged, namely, those who are part of the "international development assistance community." This group includes not only the representatives of donor governments and multilateral agencies but also, particularly, the policymakers and development planners in the developing countries who xi

xii PREFACE serve as the managers of development assistance funds and perform a strategic role in the achievement of development objectives. Thirteen years ago, Lyle Saunders and I wrote about the need for the "policy analyst," a social scientist who could engage in population policy research and who could assume the role of change agent for the government officials in the developing countries who are responsible for public policy intervention relevant to the issues of population and development. Population policy units have since been established in the national planning organizations of a substantial number of developing countries, but as this book shows, much remains to be done in the coordination of development and of population policies. By inviting me to serve as Distinguished Visiting Professor of Sociology with no specific obligations beyond those I imposed on myself, Fordham University provided me with the time to undertake the reading required for this enterprise and to write the original draft. I am particularly grateful to John J. Macisco, Jr., my long-time colleague and friend, for his helpful criticism, not only of the original manuscript but also of the revised version. His participation extended to teaching jointly with me a course on population and development. This acknowledgment of his assistance cannot begin to repay the debt lowe him. River Vale, New Jersey OZZIE G. SIMMONS

Contents D Chapter 1 Introduction 1 Definilions... 3 Historical Context........................... 5 Notes...................................... 10 Chapter 2 Perspectives on Development 13 Modernization Model... 13 Underdevelopment and Dependency... 19 Modernization and Dependency: The Limitations............................... 23 Redistribution with Growth.................. 26 Basic-Needs Approach... 30 Concluding Observations............. 40 Notes... 42 Chapter 3 Equity-Oriented Development: Problems and Prospects 45 Urban Bias... 45 Political and Other Constraints and Structural Change... 49 Popular Participation and Community-Level Action... 52 Responses from the Third W orid... 56 Multinational Corporations and Poverty- Focused Development..................... 68 Official Development Assistance... 73 Concluding Observations.............. 84 Notes... 88 xiii

xiv Chapter 4 CONTENTS Links between Development Perspectives and Population Growth 91 Demographic Transition... 91 Modernization and Demographic Transition in the Developing World..................... 94 Equity, Poverty, and Population Growth...... 100 Concluding Observations.................... 113 Notes...................................... 114 Chapter 5 Population and Development: A Selective Overview 117 Causal Analysis... 118 Economic and Sociological Approaches: Efforts at Convergence........................... 123 Effects of Population Growth on Development 129 Sociocultural Factors and Population Growth.. 133 Institutional Factors and Population Growth... 141 Concluding Observations.................... 144 Notes...................................... 146 Chapter 6 Sectoral Reviews I 149 Natural Resources... 150 Health, Nutrition, and Food... 161 Notes...................................... 176 Chapter 7 Sectoral Reviews II 179 Status and Employment of Women........... 179 Education.................................. 190 Concluding Observations......... 202 Notes... 202 Chapter 8 Conclusions 205 Interrelationships: Population Growth and Development............................. 206

CONTENTS xv Equity and Population Growth............... 215 Donor Assistance: Directions and Dimensions. 219 Tasks for Theory and Research............... 223 Coordination of Population Policy Analysis and Development Planning... 226 Notes... 230 References 235 Index 265