Suchergebnisse

This article argues that most government policies towards intergenerational issues are deficient. Government attention has focused largely on environmental and economic considerations, at the expense of other concerns such as social dimensions. Some of these neglected issues, such as social inequality and generational legacies are presently hindering the formation of social capital and social development, as well as preventing individuals from reaching their full potential. These examples highlight that governments should consider a broader range of concerns within the context of reviewing the underlying intergenerational contract in each society as a result of demographic, economic and political changes.

The mid‐twentieth century witnessed the emergence of a remarkable consensus on quantitative estimates of world population growth after 1650. This was the achievement of Walter Willcox, supported and modified by Alexander Carr‐Saunders and John Durand, and was endorsed by United Nations publications. It had its origins in eighteenth‐ and nineteenth‐century work, largely carried out in Germany. Willcox was particularly interested in demonstrating seventeenth‐century population growth as evidence of the global impact of European expansion, and this probably led to a too‐ready acceptance of estimates with little real basis. More recent estimates do little to shake the consensus, but extend the historical series back over two millennia or further. The article examines the strength and influence of a consensus based in the earlier period on surprisingly insecure data. It then turns to the most suspect element in the consensus, the pre‐twentieth‐century estimates for Africa. Finally, little hope is expressed that future researchers will be able to establish reliable estimates, especially for dates earlier than the eighteenth century.