Frédéric Bastiat and Demographics of Bangladesh: Difference between pages

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[[Image:Bangladesh-demography.png|thumb|300px|right|Total population of Bangladesh, 1961-2003, in thousands. Source: [[FAO]]]]

[[Image:Bastiat.jpg|right|frame|Frédéric Bastiat]]

[[Bangladesh]] is [[Ethnic group|ethnically]] homogeneous. Indeed its name derives from the [[Bengali]] ethnic and linguistic group which comprises 98% of the population. Bengalis, who are also present in large number in the [[West Bengal]] province of [[India]] are one of the most populous ethnic groups in the world. Variations in Bengali culture and language do exist of course. There are many dialects of Bengali spoken throughout the country. The dialect spoken by those in [[Sylhet]] is particularly distinctive.

The most significant minorities are the [[Urdu]] speaking [[Biharis]] around [[Dhaka]], [[Rangpur]] and elsewhere and various tribal groups such as the [[Chakma]] concentrated in the [[Chittagong Hill Tracts]]. The Biharis emigrated from the Indian province of [[Bihar]] during the 1947 [[partition of India]]. In the 1971 independence struggle they supported West Pakistan, and those that remained became [[Stranded Pakistanis|refugees]]. [[Refugees International]] has called them a neglected and stateless people as they are denied citizenship and much of the 300,000 of them live in refugee camps, many being born there.<ref>[http://www.refugeesinternational.org/content/publication/detail/7828/ Refugees of Nowhere: The Stateless Biharis of Bangladesh], Refugees International, 2006-02-15</ref>

'''Claude Frédéric Bastiat''' ([[June 30]], [[1801]]&ndash;[[December 24]], [[1850]]) was a French [[classical liberalism|classical liberal]] [[author]] and [[political economy|political economist]].

__NOTOC__

==Biography==

Bastiat was born in [[Bayonne]], [[Aquitaine]], [[France]]. His public career as an economist began only in [[1844]], and was cut short by his untimely death in [[1850]]. Bastiat had caught tuberculosis, probably during his tours throughout France to promote libertarian ideas, and that illness eventually prevented him from making further speeches (particularly at the legislative assembly to which he was elected in [[1848]] and [[1849]]) and took his life. Frédéric Bastiat died in [[Rome, Italy]] on [[December 24]], [[1850]]. Bastiat declared on his death bed that his friend [[Gustave de Molinari]] (publisher of Bastiat's masterpiece ''The Law'' in [[1849]]) was his spiritual heir.

The [[religions]] practiced in the region have changed significantly through history. At various times in the distance past, [[Buddhism]] and [[Hinduism]] were each the dominant religions. The [[Partition of India|1947 partition]] of Bengal along religious lines augmented the existing [[Sunni]] [[Muslim]] majority in the region. The most recent estimate of religious makeup from the 2001 census reported that the population was 89.58% Muslim, 9.34% Hindu, 0.62% Buddhist, 0.31% Christian and 0.15% Animist. [http://www.bbs.gov.bd/dataindex/census/bang_atg.pdf] .<ref name="bbs">[http://www.bbs.gov.bd/ Bangladesh Burueau of Statistics]</ref><ref name="cia_error">The CIA World Factbook's figures are apparently in error because they are incoherent. The 1990-1996 and 2001-2007 editions report 83% Muslim and 16% Hindu, but the 1997-2000 editions (as well as the 2005 Background Note from the US State Department) give Muslim 88.3%, Hindu 10.5%.</ref> About [[Demographics of Islam|5%]] of the Muslims (and most of the Biharis) are [[Shia]].

==Views==

Bastiat can be said to be of the "Harmonic" school of libertarians, who consider utilitarian and natural law arguments as two complementary aspects of a same world. Bastiat did not take part in the [[anarchism|anarchist]]-[[minarchism|minarchist]] debate (he arguably died too early for that); he seems to have considered the State as something inevitable as far as immediate practical matter -- something that ought to be taken into account as long as it existed. He also explicitly deplored violent revolution as a way to get rid of governments (a view no doubt influenced by the horrors of the [[Jacobins]] and the trials of the [[French Revolution]]). {{liberalism}} However, like all classical liberals, Bastiat maintained a deep distrust of all government, in any form, and worked all his life to demonstrate that government control of private individuals and regulation of private industry is inefficient, economically damaging, and morally wrong.

As in neighboring India, more than half of the population lives in [[agrarian]] rural villages. But urbanization is proceeding rapidly and the capitol [[Dhaka]] is one of the fastest growing and largest cities in the world. Other major urban centers include [[Chittagong]] and [[Khulna]].

Because of his stress on the role of consumer demand in initiating economic progress, Bastiat is seen as a forerunner of the [[Austrian School]].

<ref>{{cite web

| url = http://www.world-gazetteer.com/wg.php?x=&men=gcis&lng=en&dat=32&srt=npan&col=aohdq&geo=-29

| publisher = World Gazetteer

| title = Bangladesh: largest cities and towns and statistics of their population

| accessdate = 2006-07-28

}}</ref>

The least densely populated areas are in the [[Sundarbans]] jungle and the Chittagong Hill Tracts.

Bangladesh had one of the highest rates of population growth in the world in the 1960's and 1970's. Since then however it has seen a marked reduction in its total [[fertility rate]], from 6.2 thirty years ago to 3.2 (2003 UNDP figures).

One of Bastiat's most important contributions to the field of economics was his admonition to the effect that good economic decisions can only be made by taking into account the "full picture." That is, economic truths should be arrived at by observing not only the immediate consequences (i.e., benefits or liabilities) of an economic decision, but also by examining the long-term consequences. Additionally, one must examine the decision's effect not only on a single group of people (say candlemakers) or a single industry (say candles), but on all people and all industries in the society as a whole. As Bastiat famously put it: an economist must take into account "both what is seen and what is not seen." Bastiat's "rule" was later expounded by [[Henry Hazlitt]] in his work [[Economics in One Lesson]], in which Hazlitt borrowed Bastiat's trenchant "Broken Window Fallacy" and went on to demonstrate how it applies to a wide variety of economic falsehoods.

==Demographic data from the CIA World Factbook==

==Works==

[[Image:Bangladesh population pyramid 2005.png|thumb|300px|[[Population pyramid]] of Bangladesh]]

Bastiat was the author of many works on economics and political economy, generally characterized by their clear organization, forceful argument and acerbic wit. Among his most well known works is ''[[Economic Fallacies]]'', which contains many trenchant attacks on [[statism|statist]] (i.e. "progressive") policies. Bastiat wrote it while living in [[England]] in an attempt to advise the shapers of the French Republic on pitfalls to avoid.

===Population===

:150,448,339 (July 2007 est.)

:124,355,263 (2001 Census)

Related to ''Economic Fallacies'' is the [[satire|satirical]] episode best known as the "[[Candlemakers' petition]]" [http://silentpc.org/university/Candlemaker.pdf pdf]which presents itself as a petition from candlemakers to the French government, asking the government to block out [[Sun|the Sun]] to prevent its unfair competition with their products. Much like [[Jonathan Swift]]'s ''[[A Modest Proposal]]'' or [[Benjamin Franklin]]'s anti-slavery works, Bastiat's argument cleverly highlights the basic flaws in state-support of industry by demonstrating its absurdity when carried to a logical extreme.

===Age structure===

Bastiat's most famous work, however, is undoubtedly ''[[The Law (Bastiat)|The Law]]'' [http://silentpc.org/university/TheLaw.pdf pdf], originally published as a pamphlet in [[1850]]. It deals with the issues underlying the development of a just and free system of laws, and how such laws should be applied in a free society.

:0-14 years: 32.9% (male 24,957,997/female 23,533,894)

:15-64 years: 63.6% (male 47,862,774/female 45,917,674)

:65 years and over: 3.5% (male 2,731,578/female 2,361,435) (2006 est.)

===Median age===

Sadly, Bastiat and his works are no longer well-known in the Anglophone world, and are becoming difficult to find in English translation.

:Total: 22.2 years

:Male: 22.2 years

:Female: 22.2 years (2006 est.)

===Population growth rate===

==Selected quotations==

:3.09% (2006 est.)

* "If the natural tendencies of mankind are so bad that it is not safe to permit people to be free, how is it that the tendencies of these organizers are always good? Do not the legislators and their appointed agents also belong to the human race? Or do they believe that they themselves are made of a finer clay than the rest of mankind?" -- from ''The Law''

===Birth rate===

* "When under the pretext of fraternity, the legal code imposes mutual sacrifices on the citizens, human nature is not thereby abrogated. Everyone will then direct his efforts toward contributing little to, and taking much from, the common fund of sacrifices. Now, is it the most unfortunate who gains from this struggle? Certainly not, but rather the most influential and calculating." -- from ''The Law''

:29.8 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

===Death rate===

* "Life, faculties, production—in other words, individuality, liberty, property—this is man. And in spite of the cunning of artful political leaders, these three gifts from God precede all human legislation, and are superior to it. Life, liberty, and property do not exist because men have made laws. On the contrary, it was the fact that life, liberty, and property existed beforehand that caused men to make laws in the first place." -- from ''The Law''

:8.27 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

===Net migration rate===

* "But how is this legal plunder to be identified? Quite simply. See if the law takes from some persons what belongs to them, and gives it to other persons to whom it does not belong. See if the law benefits one citizen at the expense of another by doing what the citizen himself cannot do without committing a crime." -- from ''The Law''

:-0.68 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

===Sex ratio===

* "Government is the great fiction through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else." -- from ''Government''

:At birth: 1.06 male(s)/female

:Under 15 years: 1.06 male(s)/female

:15-64 years: 1.04 male(s)/female

:65 years and over: 1.16 male(s)/female

:Total population: 1.05 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

===Infant mortality rate===

* "Socialism, like the ancient ideas from which it springs, confuses the distinction between government and society. As a result of this, every time we object to a thing being done by government, the socialists conclude that we object to its being done at all. We disapprove of state education. Then the socialists say that we are opposed to any education. We object to a state religion. Then the socialists say that we want no religion at all. We object to a state-enforced equality. Then they say that we are against equality. And so on, and so on. It is as if the socialists were to accuse us of not wanting persons to eat because we do not want the state to raise grain." -- from ''The Law''

:Total: 60.83 deaths/1,000 live births

:Male: 61.87 deaths/1,000 live births

:Female: 59.74 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

===Life expectancy at birth===

* "It seems to me that this is theoretically right, for whatever the question under discussion—whether religious, philosophical, political, or economic; whether it concerns prosperity, morality, equality, right, justice, progress, responsibility, cooperation, property, labor, trade, capital, wages, taxes, population, finance, or government—at whatever point on the scientific horizon I begin my researches, I invariably reach this one conclusion: The solution to the problems of human relationships is to be found in liberty." -- from ''The Law''

:Total population: 62.46 years

:Male: 62.47 years

:Female: 62.45 years (2006 est.)

===Total fertility rate===

==See also==

:3.11 children born/woman (2006 est.)

*[[Frederic Bastiat's debate with Proudhon|His debate with Proudhon]]

*[[broken window fallacy|His parable of the broken window]]

*[[Liberalism]]

*[[Contributions to liberal theory]]

===HIV/AIDS===

== External links ==

:Adult prevalence rate: less than 0.1% (2001 est.)

{{wikiquote}}

:People living with HIV/AIDS: 13,000 (2001 est.)

{{Wikisource author}}

:Deaths: 650 (2001 est.)

{{Commonscat|Frédéric Bastiat}}

*{{gutenberg author|id=Bastiat|name=Frédéric Bastiat}}

* [http://www.mondopolitico.com/library/thelaw/mpintro.htm Mondo Politico Library's presentation of Frederic Bastiat's book, ''The Law'' (Dean Russell translation; full text; formatted for easy on-screen reading)]

* [http://www.freeaudio.org FreeAudio.org's] free audio book of [http://www.freeaudio.org/fbastiat/thelaw.html ''The Law''].

* The [http://www.econlib.org/ Library of Economics and Liberty] publishes most English translations of his works.

* [http://Bastiat.org/ Bastiat.org] publishes or indexes all about Bastiat.

* [http://Bastiat.net/ The Cercle Frederic Bastiat] also publishes about Bastiat, and promotes the same tradition of libertarianism.

* [http://www.udesa.edu.ar/profesores/deptoeconomia/cruces/fun/bastiat_en.html The Candlemakers' Petition - English translation]

* [http://www.freeaudio.org/fbastiat/candlemakerspetition.html The Candlemakers' Petition - Audio Book] at [http://www.freeaudio.org/ FreeAudio.org]

* [http://www.liberal-international.org/library/bastiat.html Biography with Literature index]

[[Category:1801 births|Bastiat, Frederic]]

[[Category:1850 deaths|Bastiat, Frederic]]

[[Category:Economists|Bastiat, Frederic]]

===Major infectious diseases===

[[de:Frédéric Bastiat]]

:Degree of risk: high

[[es:Frédéric Bastiat]]

:Food or waterborne diseases: bacterial diarrhea, hepatitis A and E, and typhoid fever

[[eo:Frédéric BASTIAT]]

:Vectorborne diseases: dengue fever and malaria are high risks in some locations

[[fr:Frédéric Bastiat]]

:Water contact disease: leptospirosis

[[nl:Frédéric Bastiat]]

:Animal contact disease: rabies (2005)

[[pl:Frédéric Bastiat]]

[[fi:Frederic Bastiat]]

===Nationality===

[[sv:Frédéric Bastiat]]

:Noun: Bangladeshi(s)

:Adjective: Bangladeshi

===Ethnic groups===

:Bengali 98%, tribal groups, non-Bengali Muslims (1998)

===Religions===

:Muslim - 89.58%, Hindu - 9.34%, Boudhists - 0.62%, Christian - 0.31% and Animists - 0.15% (2001 Census) [http://www.bbs.gov.bd/dataindex/census/bang_atg.pdf]

:Muslim - 88.31%, Hindu 10.52%, Boudhists - 0.58%, Christian - 0.33% and Animist - 0.26% (1991 census)

:Muslim - 86.65%, Hindu - 12.13%, Boudhists - 0.62%, Christian - 0.31%, Animist - 0.29% (1981 Census)

===Languages===

:Bangla (official, also known as Bengali)

===Literacy===

:Definition: age 15 and over can read and write

:Total population: 43.1%

:Male: 53.9%

:Female: 31.8% (2003 est.)

==Other demographic data==

Naturally there is some degree of uncertainty about the population, especially in a developing country such as Bangladesh with a high level of illiteracy and rural population. Thus the margin of error is such that in 2005 it was unknown which of Bangladesh and [[Russia]] has the larger population. For example the UN's ESA ranked Russia 7th and Bangladesh 8th, whereas the CIA World Factbook ranked Bangladesh 7th and Russia 8th. At any rate, the population of Russia is in decline while that of Bangladesh is growing. Most rankings in 2007 now show Bangladesh to be larger. The following table lists various recent estimates of the population.

{|class="wikitable"

|-

| Source

| align="center" | Year

| align="center" | Population (millions)

|-

| National Census<ref name="bbs"/>

| align="center" | 1991

| align="center" | 112

|-

| National Census<ref name="bbs"/>

| align="center" | 2001

| align="center" | 129

|-

| UN Population Fund<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.unfpa.org/profile/bangladesh.cfm | publisher = [[United Nations Population Fund]] | title = Indicators: Bangladesh | accessdate = 2006-07-28}}</ref>

| align="center" | 2003

| align="center" | 150

|-

| UN Dept Economic and Social Affairs<ref>Medium fertility variant, {{cite web | url = http://esa.un.org/unpp/ | title = World Population Prospects: 2004 Revision | publisher = UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs}}</ref>

| align="center" | 2005

| align="center" | 142

|-

| US State Dept<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/3452.htm | publisher = [[U.S. Department of State]] | title = Background Note: Bangladesh | date = 2005-08}}</ref>

| align="center" | 2005

| align="center" | 144

|-

| Population Reference Bureau<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.prb.org/TemplateTop.cfm?Section=PRB_Country_Profiles&template=/customsource/countryprofile/countryprofiledisplay.cfm&Country=395 | publisher = Population Reference Bureau | title = Country Profiles: Bangladesh | accessdate = 2006-07-28}}</ref>

| align="center" | 2005

| align="center" | 144

|-

| CIA World FactBook<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.umsl.edu/services/govdocs/wofact2006/geos/bg.html#People | publisher = CIA | title = CIA World Factbook 2006 }}</ref>

| align="center" | 2006

| align="center" | 147

|-

| UN Population Fund<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.unfpa.org/swp/2006/english/notes/indicators/e_indicator2.pdf | publisher = United Nations Population Fund | title = State of World Population 2006 }}</ref>

| align="center" | 2006

| align="center" | 144

|-

| CIA World FactBook<ref>{{cite web | url = https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/bg.html#People | publisher = CIA | title = CIA World Factbook 2007 }}</ref>

| align="center" | 2007

| align="center" | 150

|-

| UN<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/wpp2006/wpp2006_highlights.pdf | publisher = UN | title = World Population Prospects: The 2006 Revision}}</ref>

| align="center" | 2007

| align="center" | 159

|}

==References==

*{{CIA WFB 2006}}

*{{StateDept}}

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{{Asia in topic|Demographics of}}

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[[Category:Demographics by country|Bangladesh]]

[[Category:Bangladeshi society]]

[[fr:Démographie du Bangladesh]]