The thesis discusses the main issues of demographic transition theory and uses this in a comparative analysis of fertility movements in three socio-economically different Brazilian regions over the twentieth century. The regions are the Northeast and the states of Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo. The analysis points to a clear movement towards smaller family sizes in all regions. The movement started early in the twentieth century (or before) among white women living in Rio de Janeiro. These women were probably the better off. This behaviour was followed by white Sao Paulo women after about two decades and by the 1980s had reached most women independently of socio-economic status. The diffusion of the value of a small family and the legitimatization of contraception as well as some adjustment to mortality decline seem to have played an important role in this process. Although fertility declined in all regions, a single pattern of fertility change, as delineated by the classical view of demographic transition theory, was not found. Fertility rates were always in movement, declining and increasing. The strategy used for the decline was, mostly, an earlier stopping of reproduction. However, later onset and longer spacing also became important, especially at a more advanced stage of the fertility decline. A clear and single association between socio-economic variables and family size was not observed. Each variable played a somewhat different role in the reproductive behaviour of the three societies. Mass communication contributed to the diffusion of the small family size value. The process of diffusion resulted in a separation of socioeconomic and intermediate variables. This points to the existence of a component of social pressure in the fertility decline. Indications of a continuation of fertility decline in the near future are present. However, hints of a convergence in fertility rates and their stabilization at replacement level were not found. Fertility rates may reach levels below replacement in Rio and Sao Paulo. Regional fertility differences are likely to continue. This suggests the presence of regional and individual preferences in the reproduction process or conscious choice along with some degree of institutional pressure.

This thesis builds on previous United Nations’ research investigating factors affecting the Total Fertility Rate (TFR) in six (6) states: Burkina Faso, Mexico, Morocco, Nepal, the Philippines, and Uganda. The present research, however, provides a broader assessment of the TFR and the potential causes of its decline by examining countries across nine (9) regions of the world – sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, South Asia, East Asia, the Middle East and North Africa, the Caribbean, the Pacific Islands, Eastern and Southeastern Europe, and the former Soviet Socialist Republics of the Commonwealth of Independent States. The present analyses are also conducted over time, specifically from 1960 through 2002. Five (5) primary hypotheses regarding factors affecting the Total Fertility Rate are examined using feasible generalized least squares regression analysis. First, foreign debt is hypothesized to have a positive relationship to TFR. That is, holding all else constant, as foreign debt increases, TFR is expected to increase as well. Foreign debt is operationalized first, as total external debt; second, as long-term debt, and third, as total debt service as a percentage of exports of goods and services. Second, foreign aid, the level of socioeconomic development, and the extent of females’ education are all hypothesized to have negative relationships to TFR. That is, all else constant, as foreign aid increases, TFR is expected to decrease. All else constant, as the level of socioeconomic development increases, TFR is also expected to decrease. All else constant, as the extent of females’ education increases, TFR is also expected to decrease. Foreign aid is operationalized as first, International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) loans and International Development Agency (IDA) credits; and second, as official development assistance and official aid. The level of socioeconomic development is operationalized as the Gross National Income (GNI) per capita in terms of purchasing power parity. The extent of females’ education is operationalized as first, the adult female literacy rate (ages 15 and above), and second, as the ratio of young literate females to males (ages 15 – 24). Finally, whereas previous scholars have hypothesized that industrialization reduces TFR (the Western European “demographic transition” hypothesis), the present research proposes that this relationship may not hold in developing countries. This possibility is investigated by analyzing the relationships between TFR and first, the value added of agriculture (as a percentage of GDP); second, the value added of industry (also as a percentage of GDP); third, the value added of manufacturing as a percentage of GDP; and fourth, the value added of services as a percentage of GDP. The findings presented here suggest first, that the foreign debt and foreign aid have differing effects on TFR in different regions of the world. Second, the effects of socioeconomic development and females’ education are more consistent (than foreign debt and foreign aid) across the different regions – but intriguing variations still exist. Finally, it appears that, with very few exceptions, the Western European-based demographic transition model does not hold for non-Western and developing areas. Therefore, new, region-specific models of TFR need to be developed – and public policy needs to be based on these more accurate, more context-appropriate models.

This study explores the one-child policy as viewed by the present generation of single daughters who grew up in urban China, and the extent to which this policy has affected their family values. Through snowball sampling methods, semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with 12 unmarried only-child daughters from urban China now studying in Victoria and Vancouver. For purposes of comparison, 11 unmarried only-child daughters of the same generation were also interviewed in Hong Kong during the same time period. The findings revealed that some only-child daughters from urban China experienced low dissemination and enforcement of the one-child policy and expressed noncompliance and dissatisfaction towards the policy. A comparison between the China and Hong Kong samples indicates that the one-child policy has limited effect on the family values of the only-child daughters in urban China. By exploring the concept of governmentality, the demographic transition theory, and the concept of resistance, this thesis aims to address the dynamics between action of state power and the reaction of only-child daughters from urban China born under the one-child policy.

This study explores the one-child policy as viewed by the present generation of single daughters who grew up in urban China, and the extent to which this policy has affected their family values. Through snowball sampling methods, semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with 12 unmarried only-child daughters from urban China now studying in Victoria and Vancouver. For purposes of comparison, 11 unmarried only-child daughters of the same generation were also interviewed in Hong Kong during the same time period. The findings revealed that some only-child daughters from urban China experienced low dissemination and enforcement of the one-child policy and expressed noncompliance and dissatisfaction towards the policy. A comparison between the China and Hong Kong samples indicates that the one-child policy has limited effect on the family values of the only-child daughters in urban China. By exploring the concept of governmentality, the demographic transition theory, and the concept of resistance, this thesis aims to address the dynamics between action of state power and the reaction of only-child daughters from urban China born under the one-child policy.

La population - en son sens originel de processus de peuplement - est un sujet étonnamment absent de l'énorme volume d’études sur Adam Smith. Ce thème était au centre de la philosophie morale et de l'économie politique du 18e siècle, les deux domaines auxquels les contributions de Smith sont les plus connues. Son importance dans l’œuvre de Smith a été obscurcie au 20e siècle par une focalisation étroite sur les questions économiques dans la littérature secondaire. Pour une analyse intégrale de son œuvre, il est essentiel que la place centrale du peuplement soit révélée. Trois thèmes aujourd'hui considérés comme essentiels au projet de Smith sont ainsi intimement liés à la population : le lien entre division du travail et étendue du marché ; la théorie des quatre stades du progrès de la société ; et le lien entre développement rural et urbain, lui-même au centre du plaidoyer de Smith pour la liberté du commerce. Le marché est un concept aujourd'hui assimilé au fonctionnement du système économique capitaliste ; pour Smith, il décrivait la faculté de commercer, aux vecteurs essentiellement démographiques et géographiques. Le progrès de la société est à la fois cause et effet de la croissance de la population. En son sein se trouve l'interrelation symbiotique entre le développement rural et urbain que Smith appelait le «progrès naturel de l'opulence». Adopter l’optique smithienne plutôt que néo-malthusienne dans l'examen des dynamiques de population et de développement - y compris l'analyse de la transition démographique - conduit alors à une reconsidération fondamentale des interactions causales entre mortalité, fécondité, richesse et variables institutionnelles. / Population - in its original sense of the process of peopling - is a topic surprisingly absent from the huge volume of scholarship on Adam Smith. This topic was central to 18th century moral philosophy and political economy, the two fields Smith most famously contributed to. Its importance in Smith’s work was obscured in the 20th century by a narrow focus on economic matters in the secondary literature. For an undivided analysis of Smith’s oeuvre it is crucial that the central position of the peopling process be brought to light. Three topics that are today recognised as essential to Smith’s project are thus intimately connected to population: the relation between the division of labour and the extent of the market; the stadial theory of progress; and the link between the development of town and country, itself central to Smith’s advocacy of the freedom of trade. The market is a concept read today through an institutional lens linking it to the functioning of the capitalist economic system; Smith conceived of it as facility for trade, with essentially demographic and geographic vectors. The progress of society is both cause and effect of the growth of population. At its core is the symbiotic interrelationship between rural and urban development that Smith called the “natural progress of opulence”. In turn, looking at dynamics of population and development - including the analysis of the demographic transition - through a Smithian rather than a neo-Malthusian lens leads to a fundamental reconsideration of causal interactions between mortality, fertility, wealth and institutional variables.