Daling en niveau van de geboortencijfers in Nederland: bijdrage tot een discussie

Samenvatting

A contribution to a current discussion on the reasons for the falling Dutch birth rate. 3 previous contributions to the discussion are examined: (1) E. W. Hofstee explained the fall by the spread, from the industr West to the agrarian East, of a 'modern-dynamic cultural pattern'; (2) F. van Heek says the fall can best be explained in terms of the religious variable, with Catholic areas being less affected than Protestant areas; (3) H. Damas-her Belgian study, which provides evidence complementary to the Dutch case, explains the fall in the Belgian birth rate in terms similar to Hofstee, by the spread of a modernist cultural pattern from the industrial Southeast to the agricultural Northwest. From an analysis, which stresses that there has been a one-sided emphasis on cultural and psychological factors and a too positive evaluation of change by the contributors, it is concluded that: (A) cultural and sociological factors should be distinguished more clearly than is done by Hofstee and van Heck; (B) structural factors should not be neglected on theoretical grounds, esp since practical considerations are also at stake; (C) Dutch Med and hygienic services have also influenced the falling birth rate but the contributors ignore them; and (D) the differentiation between the Catholic and Protestant birth rates since 1910 is best explained by the resistance of the Catholic elite to the modernist pattern. I. Langnas