Policy Press
7 Social engineering versus democracy
Abstract
In a 1925 speech, John Maynard Keynes reflected that by the late nineteenth century economists no longer felt it necessary to address the population question as identified by Malthus. Promiscuity, as he put it, had ceased to be regarded as an economic problem and came to be addressed scientifically by coldly statistical and amoral population studies. Instead, concerns about overpopulation were highlighted by advocates of women’s rights, sex education and contraception, such as Annie Besant (1847–1933). Keynes’s 1925 address to the by-then moribund Liberal Party declared that ‘sex questions’ were about to enter the political arena:
The very crude beginnings represented by the Suffrage Movement were only symptoms of deeper and more important issues below the surface. Birth Control and the use of Contraceptives, Marriage Laws, the treatment of sexual offences and abnormalities, the economic position of women, the economic position of the family, – in all these matters the existing state of the Law and of orthodoxy is still medieval – altogether out of touch with civilised opinion and civilised practice and with what individuals, educated and uneducated alike, say to one another in private.1
Keynes’ checklist referenced the emancipatory possibilities of birth control for women but also alluded to a by-then well-established eugenic social engineering agenda that had long impressed the reformist intellectual circles in which he moved.2
Feminist advocacy of birth control and contraception emerged during the late nineteenth century alongside campaigns for the rights to vote for women.3 By then, the influence of Charles Darwin and Herbert Spenser had superseded that of Malthus.
Abstract
In a 1925 speech, John Maynard Keynes reflected that by the late nineteenth century economists no longer felt it necessary to address the population question as identified by Malthus. Promiscuity, as he put it, had ceased to be regarded as an economic problem and came to be addressed scientifically by coldly statistical and amoral population studies. Instead, concerns about overpopulation were highlighted by advocates of women’s rights, sex education and contraception, such as Annie Besant (1847–1933). Keynes’s 1925 address to the by-then moribund Liberal Party declared that ‘sex questions’ were about to enter the political arena:
The very crude beginnings represented by the Suffrage Movement were only symptoms of deeper and more important issues below the surface. Birth Control and the use of Contraceptives, Marriage Laws, the treatment of sexual offences and abnormalities, the economic position of women, the economic position of the family, – in all these matters the existing state of the Law and of orthodoxy is still medieval – altogether out of touch with civilised opinion and civilised practice and with what individuals, educated and uneducated alike, say to one another in private.1
Keynes’ checklist referenced the emancipatory possibilities of birth control for women but also alluded to a by-then well-established eugenic social engineering agenda that had long impressed the reformist intellectual circles in which he moved.2
Feminist advocacy of birth control and contraception emerged during the late nineteenth century alongside campaigns for the rights to vote for women.3 By then, the influence of Charles Darwin and Herbert Spenser had superseded that of Malthus.
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents iii
- About the author iv
- Preface v
- Three roads 1
- The invention of laissez faire 11
- Utopian socialism 33
- Reform liberalism and technocracy 55
- Catholic social thought versus modernity 77
- The case for social democracy 99
- Social engineering versus democracy 135
- The rise of neoliberalism 161
- European Christian democracy 183
- Legacies 203
- Notes 215
- Select bibliography 245
- Index 251
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents iii
- About the author iv
- Preface v
- Three roads 1
- The invention of laissez faire 11
- Utopian socialism 33
- Reform liberalism and technocracy 55
- Catholic social thought versus modernity 77
- The case for social democracy 99
- Social engineering versus democracy 135
- The rise of neoliberalism 161
- European Christian democracy 183
- Legacies 203
- Notes 215
- Select bibliography 245
- Index 251
