The No-Growth Society

First Published in 1975. Two policy proposals are particularly notable and owe nothing to the long-standing controversies between left and right. Rather, they suggest new perceptions of reality and a changing sense of values. They are thoroughly radical and indeed subversive since they attack two fundamental features of modern society: its tendency to exponential growth and its assumption of continuous progress. The two proposals are zero economic growth and zero population growth... Quite apart from the question of the desirability of a no-growth society, or even the possibility that it may even be a necessity, what properties should it have? How would its social, political and economic systems function? What would people be like in such a society? What sort of culture or ·consciousness· would be appro­priate in it? ...A careful examination of the no-growth proposals helps to reveal a number of the most fundamental failings and fears of modern life.

Edited by Mancur Olson and Hans H. Landsberg

Chapter 1 Introduction, Mancur Olson; Chapter 2 Zero Population Growth, Kingsley Davis; Chapter 3 Population and the American Predicament, John P. Holdren; Chapter 4 Two Cheers for ZPG, Norman B. Ryder; Chapter 5 Ills, Bads, and Disamenities, E. J. Mishan; Chapter 6 The Shadow of the Stationary State, Kenneth E. Boulding; Chapter 7 The Risks of Growth, Richard Zeckhauser; Chapter 8 On Reforming Economic Growth, Marc J. Roberts; Chapter 9 The Technology of Zero Growth, Harvey Brooks; Chapter 10 Rich Countries and Poor in a Finite, Interdependent World, Lester Brown; Chapter 11 Should the Poor Buy no Growth?, Willard R. Johnson; Chapter 12 Urban Zero Population Growth, William Alonso; Chapter 13 Growth vs. No Growth, Roland N. Mckean; Epilogue, Mancur Olson, Hans H. Landsberg, Joseph L. Fisher;