Comment on G. Hendershot's "Population size, military power, and antinatal policy".

The article presents the author's comments on the article "Population Size, Military Power, and Antinatal Policy," by Gerry E. Hendershot. In his attempt to construct and to test a causal model relating population size, economic development, military power, and population policies, Hendershot has raised some interesting questions in spite of the model's admittedly poor performance. The article suggests some improvements to the population-power link in his model. One of the first difficulties with Hendershot's model is that he never provides a clear definition of the term national power. Within the context of Hendershot's model it seems most appropriate to view power as a characteristic of the relationship of one individual, social unit, or nation to another. While Hendershot's test for a relationship between population size and power is not specified correctly, his conclusion that the two are positively associated is supported by conceptually better data such as historical evidence on relative population sizes and the outcomes of wars.