BY F. M. REDINGTON, M.A., F.I.A. Actuary, Prudential Assurance Company, Ltd. AND R.D. CLARKE, F.I.A. of the Prudential Assurance Company, Ltd.
THE main Report of the Royal Commission on Population, which was presented to Parliament in June 1949, was discussed at a meeting of the Institute on 5 December 1949 ( J.I.A. LXXVI, 38). Since that discussion took place the various papers of the Commission have been published, and it seems suitable now to review the demographic aspects of the problems with which these papers are concerned. The following is a list of the volumes so far published:
Report of the Royal Commission on Population
[PP. 259 Cmd. 7695, June 1949 4s . 6d .]
Papers of the Royal Commission on Population
Volume I. Family Limitation and its Influence on Human Fertility during the past Fifty Years.
[Pp. 202, Dec. 1949, 4 s. ]
(An investigation carried out by the Council of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists.)
Volume II. Reports and Selected Papers of the Statistics Committee.
[PP. 422, 1950, 8 s. ]
Volume III. Report of the Economics Committee.
[Pp. 64, 1950, 1 S. 6 d. ]
Volume IV. Reports of the Biological and Medical Committee.
[Pp. 52, 1950, 1S . 6 d.]
Volume V. Memoranda presented to the Royal Commission.
[PP. 120 1950, 3 s. ]
The full report on the family census has still to appear.
GENERAL REMARKS ON DEMOGRAPHIC MEASUREMENT
The statistical analysis of fertility is a comparatively new subject. Ideas have not yet had time to ripen, and there has been such a mass of work done that it is, as yet, difficult to separate the wheat from the great quantity of chaff. The various volumes published by the Royal Commission add a further weighty contribution to the existing mass, and it is difficult to deal faithfully with this material without becoming engulfed in the confusion of detail. It is desirable, therefore, to attempt to establish a general background against which these volumes can be discussed.
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Our Global Neighborhood: Report of the Commission on Global Governance
Tuesday, June 30th, 2009(ISBN 0-19-827998-1; Published by Oxford University Press, 1995)
The Commission on Global Governance has released its recommendations in preparation for a World Conference on Global Governance, scheduled for 1998, at which official world governance treaties are expected to be adopted for implementation by the year 2000. Among those recommendations are specific proposals to expand the authority of the United Nations to provide:
These proposals reflect the work of dozens of different agencies and commissions over several years, but are now being advanced by the Commission on Global Governance in its report entitled Our Global Neighborhood (Oxford University Press, 1995, ISBN 0-19-827998-3, 410pp).
The Commission consists of 28 individuals, carefully selected because of their prominence, influence, and their ability to effect the implementation of the recommendations. The Commission is not an official body of the United Nations. It was, however, endorsed by the UN Secretary General and funded through two trust funds of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), nine national governments, and several foundations, including the MacArthur Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and the Carnegie Corporation.
The Commission believes that world events, since the creation of the United Nations in 1945, combined with advances in technology, the information revolution, and the now-global awareness of impending environmental catastrophe, create a climate in which the people of the world will recognize the need for, and the benefits of, global governance. Global governance, according to the report, “does not imply world government or world federalism.” Although the difference between “world government” and “global governance” has been compared to the difference between “rape” and “date-rape,” the system of governance described in the report is a new system. There is no historic model for the system here proposed, nor is there any method by which the governed may decide whether or not they wish to be governed by such a system. Global governance is a procedure toward defined objectives that employs a variety of methods, none of which give the governed an opportunity to vote “yes” or “no” for the outcome. Decisions taken by administrative bodies, or by bodies of appointed delegates, or by “accredited” civil society organizations, are already implementing many of the recommendations just published by the Commission.
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