Pregledni rad
A Survey of Theories on Agrarian Overpopulation
Rudolf Bićanić
Sažetak
The unpublished manuscript which we have been made available by the widow
of Professor Bićanić include a comprehensive text on agrarian overpopulation, a
subject on which the late Professor Bićanić worked intermittently intending to
publish it in a book. For publication in our periodical we have selected only that
part which discusses the development of the theory of agrarian overpopulation.
Theoreticians have long been concerned with the question of the relationship
between people and land. The development of concepts about it can be traced as
far back as to Confucius, Plato and Aristoteles. In the Middle Ages it was studied
by Christian theoreticians and the Arab sociologist Haldun.
The author refers to the views first of the mercantilists and then of the
physiocrats and then goes on to discuss in greater detail Malthus's population
theory and the reactions to Malthus’s fatalistic vision. He then deals at greater
length with the classical economic school, especially Smith and Ricardo who no
doubt have made great contributions towards the study of the agrarian question,
and then refers to the concepts of J. S. Mill, Senior, Sayo, and Marshal.
The second part of the article discusses the ideas of socialists — first Sismondi,
Godwin, Thomas, Gray, Saint Simon, Fourier, L. Blanc, Lasalle and Rodbertus
and then, in greater detail, the ideas of Karl Marx, Karl Kautski and Vandervelde.
The article thus offers a valuable systematic survey of the highly complex
question of agrarian and economic development.
The addendum at the end of the article describes the contents of Bićanić’s
projected work on agrarian overpopulation which has unfortunately remained
unfinished.
Ključne riječi
Hrčak ID:
118762
URI
Datum izdavanja:
10.6.1969.
Posjeta: 1.062 *