''Crisis in the Population Question'' ( sv, Kris i befolkningsfrågan) was a 1934 book by Alva and

Gunnar Myrdal Karl Gunnar Myrdal ( ; ; 6 December 1898 – 17 May 1987) was a Swedish economist and sociologist. In 1974, he received the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences along with Friedrich Hayek for "their pioneering work in the theory of money a ...

, who discussed the declining birthrate in

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic countries, Nordic c ...

and proposed possible solutions. The book was influential in the debate that created the

Swedish welfare Social welfare in Sweden is made up of several organizations and systems dealing with welfare. It is mostly funded by taxes, and executed by the public sector on all levels of government as well as private organizations. It can be separated int ...

model.

Work on the book

In the spring of 1931, Swedish economist

and Alva Myrdal wrote an article on Social Policy and Demography. The article was supposed to be published in the Swedish Social Democratic magazine '' Tiden'', but it was never completed. The article, instead, became the cornerstone of the book ''Crisis in the Population Question'' which was to be published three years later (1934). The manuscript of the article as well as of the latter book is missing. In early spring 1934, Alva and Gunnar Myrdal decided to return to this manuscript, to revise, update and expand it into book form. For this purpose, they rented a cottage in the Norwegian mountains. They worked out their theoretical differences and produced a manuscript originally titled ''Demography and Social Policy''. Gunnar was responsible for the historical, theoretical, economic and statistical sections, while Alva drafted chapters on families, children, and specific programmatic proposals.

Content

The book deals with the consequences of continued low fertility in Sweden. Sweden was threatened by

population decline A population decline (also sometimes called underpopulation, depopulation, or population collapse) in humans is a reduction in a human population size. Over the long term, stretching from prehistory to the present, Earth's total human population ...

and thus reduced productivity and

standard of living Standard of living is the level of income, comforts and services available, generally applied to a society or location, rather than to an individual. Standard of living is relevant because it is considered to contribute to an individual's quality ...

. The authors advocated a series of social reforms in order to overcome this problem. A large chapter is devoted to

Malthusianism Malthusianism is the idea that population growth is potentially exponential while the growth of the food supply or other resources is linear, which eventually reduces living standards to the point of triggering a population die off. This event, ...

and neo-Malthusianism as they attack and criticize. They argued that less population growth was not needed but an increase of birth rate was and pointed out that if the fertility rate further decreased, "we would at the end of the 1970s have almost twice as many elderly people in relation to individuals in the working ages now", leading to serious supply problems. In this context, "a positive population policy should not focus on getting a few poor families to give birth to a very large number of children, but to persuade the majority to give birth to, say, for example, three children". The occasion of the book was the birth of fewer children, economically and in terms of unsustainable housing for families. The authors proposed intelligent

natalism Natalism (also called pronatalism or the pro-birth position) is an ideology that promotes the reproduction of human life as the preeminent objective of being human. Compare: The term, as it relates to the belief itself, comes from the French wo ...

in which families with children should be supported by various reforms such as free medical care, free school lunches, child benefit, more and better housing, affordable housing and subsidized rent. The idea was that both parents could work outside the home and that the prevailing patriarchal family system (professionals father, homeworking mother) must be revised substantially through a program of social engineering. If children were placed in some kind of institution with trained staff while parents work, that would have a positive economic impact as well as educational benefits to each individual child. A very serious housing issue resulted in overcrowding and low-quality housing, particularly to poor children growing up in environments that could lead to "physical and psychological harm".

Sterilization Sterilization may refer to: * Sterilization (microbiology), killing or inactivation of micro-organisms * Soil steam sterilization, a farming technique that sterilizes soil with steam in open fields or greenhouses * Sterilization (medicine) rende ...

was also discussed in the context of nurture versus nature, the Myrdals sided with Boasian environmentalism.

Influence

Among the most prominent intellectuals in 1930s Sweden belonged to the couple Alva Myrdal (

Nobel Peace Prize The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Swedish industrialist, inventor and armaments (military weapons and equipment) manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Chemistry, Physics, Physiolo ...

, 1982) and Gunnar Myrdal (

Nobel Prize in Economics The Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, officially the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel ( sv, Sveriges riksbanks pris i ekonomisk vetenskap till Alfred Nobels minne), is an economics award administered ...

, 1974). Their political ideas and research efforts played a major role in the design of welfare policy in the welfare state time. In the book was formulated the radical reform demands for a community-oriented family policy an issue that caused a lively debate.

Background

The economic situation in the early 1930s was serious. A recession had hit the Western world, and millions of people were jobless. In the winter of 1932-1933, 200,000 people were unemployed in Sweden, and working families were especially hard hit, with one-third of children estimated to have been malnourished at the time. Birth rates fell sharply and were the lowest in the Western world. In inner-city apartments were 1930 instance, only 34% had a bath.

Notes

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References