Can Government Regulate Fertility? An Assessment of Pronatalist Policy in Eastern Europe

Datos Bibliográficos

ID10874530
AutoresJerome S Legge (University of Georgia), John R Alford (0000-0003-1866-8271, Rice University)
Año1986
Volumen39
Número4
Páginas709-728
Fecha de publicación1986-12-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaThe Western Political Quarterly (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0043-4078 • E-ISSN: 2325-8675
EditorialSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/106591298603900411
OpenAlexW1967294445
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas3
Referencias citadas14

The authoritarian governments in Eastern Europe have played an active role in the fertility regulation of their citizenry. This article examines government attempts to encourage population growth in Eastern Europe with particular attention given to Romania Hungary and the German Democratic Republic. Governments attempting to influence reproductive behavior can utilize 3 types of policies--the moral-propagandistic the economic and the legal-administrative. Romania has focused on the latter issuing a decree in 1966 banning abortion for women under age 45 with less than 4 children. Hungary has pursued a policy with some legal-administrative aspects but it has included more positive economic incentives for families to have children. Allowances were raised for a second child and monthly maternity payments were increased through the third offspring. Hungary also expanded its network of family planning centers and offered more courses on sex education and family life. The German Democratic Republic has emphatically followed an economic incentive approach in its pronatalist policy. In 1976 the government adopted regulations that raised paid maternity leave to 26 weeks provided cash allowances during the time of unpaid leave for 2nd and 3rd births gave working mothers a fully paid work week of 40 hours raised the value of birth grants and provided newly married couples with loans to buy and furnish homes. The population growth policy followed by Romania is likely to fail--abortion is deeply engrained in Romanian culture. Hungarys mixed administrative-economic approach should be effective. But the purely economic incentives of the German Democratic Republic should work permanently

Abortion · Democracy · Economic growth · Economics · Government (linguistics) · Incentive · Market economy · Political science · Politics · Population · Sociology · Demography · Family Dynamics and Relationships · Gender, Labor, and Family Dynamics · Law · Social Policy and Reform Studies