Growth of Population and the Development of Society

The existence of society and the production of material values are impossible unless there is a constant propagation of the human race. From this point of view the population , its growth and density are a natural condition of the material life of society , with a definite influence upon its development . Thus , in sparsely populated areas the development of society may be retarded , due to the difficulties in establishing economic ties among the people , while the development of production may lag , because the dissemination of production experience and skills is very slow . Finally, a low density of population can slow down the development of society, because there will simply not be enough people to counteract the forces of nature. Thus, it was impossible to build irrigation systems and use the power of rivers for producing material values for society in sparsely populated areas, since the labor force was insufficient. However, it does not follow that density of population determines the level of development of a given society. There are many countries with more or less equal populations and a similar figure for density of population but which are at different levels of development . There are countries with a lower density of population which in economic and social develop ment are ahead of countries with a higher density of population. Thus , the density of population is lower in the Soviet Union than in several countries of Western Europe , though the U.S.S.R. is farther ahead in its development . The influence of growth and density of population differ at various stages of social development . Under the primitive communal system , when human society was emerging , when man was helpless in the face of nature and production was , to a great extent , dependent upon the simple co – operation
of the producers , when the productive skills and experience of primitive man were still negligible and the exchange of skills and experience played a tremendous role in the devel opment of production , the density and growth of population were comparatively more important to the evolution of society . During successive stages in the history of mankind the density and growth of population became less important to social development and merely created the necessary condi tions for a given rate of growth in the production of material values . In turn , the development of society and the produc tion of material values actively influence the density and growth of population ,