Population pressures: threat to democracy
People Count 2(5): 1-4
1992
ISSN/ISBN: 0117-5602 PMID: 12179234 Document Number: 362889
The desire for political freedom and representative government is spreading throughout the world. The stability of democratic bodies is dependent on wise leaders, foreign aid, and slowing population growth. Rapid population growth strains political institutions and increases pressure on services. A Population Crisis Committee study found that only a few democratic countries with serious demographic pressures remained stable. The most stable countries were ones with lower levels of population pressure. Most of the 31 unstable countries were in Africa and in a band stretching from the Middle East to South Asia, and almost all had serious demographic pressures. Only 5 stable countries had high or very high demographic pressures. Since countries in the world are interdependent, population pressures have adverse consequences everywhere. Population pressures in the developing world are considered enhanced by the rapid growth of cities. Both the developed and the developing world face the problems of clogged highways, loss of wilderness, polluted lakes and streams, and stifling smog and acid rain conditions. The sociopolitical implications of demographic changes vary from country to country, but rapid growth and maldistribution of population strains existing political, social, and economic structures and relations between nations. Urban areas are the arena for clashes of cultures, competition for scarce housing and jobs, the breakdown of traditional family and social structures, and juxtapositions of extreme wealth next to extreme poverty. The growth of independent nation states since the 1940s has not allowed much time for development of effective political institutions. There are many obstacles to national unity and popular political participation. The potential for political instability is correlated with a number of factors: large youth populations in overcrowded cities with too high expectations and limited opportunities, diverse and intense ethnic and religious factors, and oppressive governments which violate human rights. Rapid growth has a harmful impact on the environment.