POPULATION POLICIES - A COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE

The article describes the nature of population policies during the las t half-century, with focus mainly but not exclusively on what is defin ed as the 'hard' sector of the policies, in designing interventions - mainly the area of fertility control. Concerns that population growth is too rapid emerged after the destructions of the Second World War, w hen the acceleration of the rate of growth in the poor world became ev ident. Japan's experience in reducing the rate of growth opened the wa y to other experiences which, however, became successful only in the 1 970s and 1980s. The article describes the emergence of an internationa l consensus on population issues, focuses on a few significant experie nces, like those of China and India, and discusses some of the major c ontroversies of the current debate, notably the role of 'demand' and ' supply' oriented policies.