Match List-I with List-II and select the correct answer using the code given below the lists –
List-I (Theories of Population): (A) Optimum Population Theory (B) Social Mal-adjustment Theory (C) Demog

Question

Match List-I with List-II and select the correct answer using the code given below the lists –
List-I (Theories of Population): (A) Optimum Population Theory (B) Social Mal-adjustment Theory (C) Demographic Transition Theory (D) Population-Food Supply Relationship Theory
List-II (Propounders of Theories): (1) Thompson (2) Malthus (3) Edwin Kennan (4) Henry George

UnlockIAS · Accepted Answer

Correct — B, A-(3), B-(4), C-(1), D-(2). The Optimum Population Theory (A) was developed by the British economist Edwin Cannan — spelt 'Edwin Kennan' in List-II — item (3). The Demographic Transition Theory (C) is credited to Warren S. Thompson (1929), who described the shift from high birth/high death to low birth/low death rates — item (1). The Population-Food Supply Relationship (D) is the classic Malthusian thesis that population grows geometrically while food grows arithmetically — Malthus, item (2). By elimination the remaining pair is Social Mal-adjustment Theory (B) with Henry George (4), the anti-Malthusian who in 'Progress and Poverty' (1879) argued that poverty flows from social and institutional mal-adjustment (land monopoly) rather than from population outrunning food. Only option (b) sets all four correctly.

Why the other options are wrong — (a) Mis-assigns every pair: it gives the Optimum theory to Thompson, the food-supply theory to Malthus's slot wrongly, and the Demographic Transition to Edwin Cannan. Cannan is the optimum-population man and Thompson is the demographic-transition man, so this reversal fails.  (c) Pairs the Optimum theory with Malthus and the food-supply theory with Thompson — both wrong. Malthus is tied to the population–food-supply relationship, not the optimum theory.  (d) Gets C-(1) Thompson and D-(2) Malthus right but swaps the top two — it puts the Optimum theory under Henry George and the Social Mal-adjustment theory under Edwin Cannan. Cannan is the optimum-theory economist, so A and B are reversed.

Concept: Population theories in the UPPSC/UPSC syllabus cluster around a few named thinkers. Malthus (1798) held that population, unchecked, grows geometrically while food grows arithmetically, so misery and vice act as checks. Edwin Cannan advanced the Optimum Population Theory — the population size that yields maximum per-capita output for a given resource base. Warren Thompson framed the Demographic Transition Theory, the three/four-stage move from high to low birth and death rates as an economy develops. Henry George, in 'Progress and Poverty', rejected Malthus and blamed poverty on social/institutional mal-adjustment rather than sheer numbers.

State PCS 2023 Q56 — Geography PYQ with Answer

State PCS 2023 Q56 — Geography PYQ with Answer