A reprint of a chapter by Jack Parsons in Holmes, N. (ed) (1976) Environment and the Industrial Society..

The first half of this chapter rehearses the population situation as it then was, while the second half describes population policymaking under the heading, ‘Problems of democratic politics’. Centring on the Liberal Party – with which (though a Labour-supporter) the author was then closely associated, it shows in analytical detail the excruciating processes of attrition through which innovatory policies must pass. It raises the awkward question whether modern democracies are too self-indulgent to be capable of generating effective survival-policies.