Demography and Democracy

Abstract

The crux of the demographic problem is not just knowing how much the human population will increase by 2050 and 2100 but, above all, what the economic system’s impact on the biosphere and the climate system will be. And, not unlike the other socio-environmental crises, the magnitude of this impact will depend on societies’ capacity for democratic governance, whence the title of this chapter. That said, population size is not an irrelevant factor, far from it. In fact, it would suffice for the decline in current high-fertility countries to be a little slower than expected for demography to return to the forefront of the socio-environmental crises. It is absolutely necessary to accelerate the demographic transition. But demographic transition is, above all, a function of democracy, without which societies will not be endowed with the five pillars of demographic rationality: (1) a socioeconomic system that is environmentally friendly, understanding the environment as a subsystem of the biosphere; (2) lower consumption, less waste, and less waste generation by the richest 30%, in order to reduce inequality in wealth and income; (3) education for all, but especially for girls/women; (4) female sexual freedom; and (5) secularism.