A Century of Demographic and Cultural Change in Western Europe: An Exploration of Underlying Dimensions

Abstract

A fertility decline is in essence part of a broader emancipation process. More specifically, the demographic regulatory mechanisms, upheld by the accompanying communal or family authority and exchange patterns, give way to the principle of individual freedom of choice, thereby allowing an extension of the domain of economic rationality to the phenomenon of reproduction. In an earlier article, drawing on the record of Western Europe, I examined social control and the regime of natural fertility. I The first aim of this article is to follow through the evolution of reproduction and changes in family life, drawing on later stages of that same record. The purpose of this exercise is to explore the extent to which current changes in fertility and nuptiality in the region can be viewed as manifestations of a cultural dimension that had already emerged at the time of demographic transition in Europe. Much of the empirical evidence presented here pertains to this issue. The second aim of the article is to place the findings in a broad theoretical framework. Although we shall stress an important sociological component and its historical development, one should not consider the'evidence as incompatible with other subtheories that follow, for instance, the microeconomic approach. In fact, microeconomic analysts will probably find it comforting to see the extension of the domain of economic rationality and of the principle of individual choice traced historically and documented statistically. But, equally central to the philosophy of this article is the argument that the various ways in which persons engage in the calculation of relative advantage reveal more than the algebraic capacities of individuals and their level of perception of opportunities and constraints. More specifically, if persons engage in an evaluation of utilities and disutilities, they operate on the basis of a preference map, and if such a preference structure exists, there must also be a meaninggiving or ideational system that directs it. There is no reason to believe that