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Toward a General Theory of Growth*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 November 2014

K. E. Boulding
K. E. Boulding*
Affiliation:
University of Michigan
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Extract

The growth phenomenon is found in practically all the sciences and even in most of the arts, because almost all the objects of human study grow—crystals, molecules, cells, plants, animals, children, personalities, knowledge, ideas, cities, cultures, organizations, nations, wealth, and economic systems. It does not follow, of course, from the mere universality of the growth phenomenon that there must be a single unified theory of growth which will cover everything from the growth of a crystal to the growth of an empire. Growth itself is not a simple or a unified phenomenon, and we cannot expect all the many forms of growth to come under the umbrella of a single theory. Nevertheless all growth phenomena have something in common, and what is more important, the classifications of forms of growth and hence of theories of growth seem to cut across most of the conventional boundaries of the sciences. In addition there are a great many problems which are common to many apparently diverse growth phenomena.

Type
Research Article
Information
Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science/Revue canadienne de economiques et science politique , Volume 19 , Issue 3 , August 1953 , pp. 326 - 340
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Political Science Association 1953

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Footnotes

*

This paper was presented at the annual meeting of the Canadian Political Science Association in London, June 3, 1953.

References

1 My recent acquaintance with the work of Dr. S. A. Courtis suggests that this judgment may be much too severe. An empirical “growth law” which fits many cases has at least the virtue that it calls attention to possible unknown sources of disturbance in cases where it does not fit—just as the law of gravity led to the discovery of the outer planets. Courtis's law (y = ki r ) may well be of use in this way. See Courtis, S. A., “What Is a Growth Cycle?” Growth, I, no. 3, 05, 1937.Google Scholar

2 Boulding, K. E., “The Application of the Pure Theory of Population Change to the Theory of Capital,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, XLVIII, 08, 1934, 650.Google Scholar

3 Thompson, D'Arcy W., On Growth and Form (2nd ed., Cambridge, 1952).Google Scholar