Population Growth and United States Politics in the 1970s

Abstract

The recent drop in birth rates in the United States to a point below replacement may well take much of the wind out of the momentum which developed during the late 1960s for a comprehensive national population policy. Such at least would appear to be a “natural result” given the characteristic patterns of American politics, whereby broad and coherent policy making is rarely produced except in moments of obvious crisis. Such a result, moreover, would dovetail with the general drift of the Nixon Administration away from the domestic and foreign activism of the Johnson years. Despite its “naturalness,” however, that result would be unfortunate. The arguments for a comprehensive national population policy are best grounded in the circumstance that population effects are long-term. This article explores the reasons for instituting such a policy from the standpoint of a central concern of political science—the quality of governance. It is argued that population stabilization would, on balance, enhance the capacity of the United States governmental structure to cope with policy problems, both domestic and foreign.