Population and Development: An Evolving Debate

Population-development: are these two terms incompatible or do they form a synergy for the future survival of the planet?The debate on population and development is not new. Already, nearly 2500 years ago, Plato in his Republic was concerned with achieving the best equilibrium between population size and the perfect city-state, or between population and sustainable development. Concretely, estimating the number of inhabitants or the size of armies for the greater glory of a kingdom has been a constant throughout history. Clay tablets from ancient Mesopotamia give gruesome accounts of the enemies killed in battle. Ancient roman historians such as Livius often included estimates of army sizes and losses in battle. In general, through much of history, a large population was perceived as a reflection of the greatness of the state and was correlated to prosperity and to development. More fundamentally, the traditional interest in enumerating populations resided in finding a basis for taxation and recruiting soldiers.Although, in the past, population growth was perceived very positively, I shall present the modern debate on whether population growth and development are compatible or not and some of its consequences. Then, in a second part, I shall focus on replacing population in an emerging development paradigm.