ABSTRACT

Three forms of Malthusian reasoning are intersecting to rebuild the population apparatus: a green Malthusianism, a cultural Malthusianism, and a neoliberal Malthusianism. This chapter aims to map the vectors that have taken center stage since the Mexico City Conference in reorganizing the configuration of the population apparatus. Three transformations in the governing procedures of the population apparatus deserve consideration: first, the emergence of "sustainable development"; second, the gendering of the population apparatus; and third, a desire to contain human migrations. The chapter focuses on how the relationship between the developmental and environmental problems of population growth contributed to shifts in the leadership positions of the Ronald Reagan administration and the Bill Clinton administration regarding the population apparatus. The performance of the Reagan administration at the Mexico City Conference was a disaster for the population apparatus. The chapter analyzes the Reagan administration's attempt to rearticulate the development-environment-population nexus around the needs of a changing global economy.