POPULATION AND INSTITUTIONAL CHANGE

Popular views of the world's population problems, in particular the pr oblem of rapid population growth, often neglect the institutional sett ings in which they are embedded. In the case of high fertility, this s etting includes the immediate institutions of social control such as t he family and local structures of authority, and more distant institut ions of the state. Taking explicit account of this context gives both greater understanding of demographic change (and absence of change) an d a better-informed base for the task of influencing it as a matter of public policy. Some analogous institutional considerations arise in t he case of the low-fertility regimes of societies that have completed the demographic transition.