The Background of Population Decline

Lenkovics, Barnabás (2024) The Background of Population Decline. In: Demographic Challenges in Central Europe. Studies of the Central European Professors' Network (10). Central European Academic Publishing, Miskolc, Budapest, pp. 129-168. ISBN 9786156474513; 9786156474520; 9786156474537

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Abstract

This chapter endeavours to explore, or at least initiate and inspire exploration into, the underlying causes of population decline observable in the so-called ‘Western’ and ‘developed’ world, attempting to look beyond aspects of law and jurisprudence. This is approached with a holistic perspective that also takes into account the results of other scientific disciplines. The chapter touches upon the ‘global paradox’ wherein the developing and impoverished parts of the world struggle with the challenges of overpopulation. The chapter perceives a universal (shared and European) crisis of values as the principal cause of population decline. Exploring the scope of these issues, it elaborates on the processes of secularisation and, indeed, desacralisation that have dismantled the sanctity of marriage and the commitment to childbearing, eroded the family as a community of love, and subsequently degraded fundamental values represented by the family, such as loyalty, trust, solidarity, altruism, gratitude, and respect. The chapter also engages with the power of faith and love, the value represented by these concepts, and the relationship between faith and science, giving attention to each idea proportional to its significance for the subject. It explores the Christian ‘good human project’ as a civilisational value, as well as its precursor, the idealised human archetype of the virtuous person and the good and caring patriarch (known as the ‘good farmer’ in Hungarian civil law). Contrastingly, it investigates the complications arising from the incursion of dominance, including systems of dominance related to private property, as well as non-ownership systems. The chapter discusses the replacement of female dominance with male dominance and the possibility of a redistribution of roles and the subsequent cooperative accord. It proposes that the resolution to the demographic crisis could be found in the creation of a civilisation of love, which indispensably requires a rearrangement of current value priorities and the promotion of happiness research as a new scientific field. Meanwhile, it views the revolution and apparatus of sexuality as one of the false paths of selfish individualism. Freedom must be protected from distortion into licentiousness, and fundamental rights (and core values) must be safeguarded against abuses by the legal system.

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