From family planning to population policy: A paradigm shift in Serbian demography at the end of the 20th century

Abstract

This paper traces changes in the dominant paradigm of Serbian demography that took palace in the context of major socio-political changes during the late twentieth century. The changes are traced both in the realm of research and social policy. It is argued that demographic transition theory remained the main explanatory model but that its modified version which gives precedence to ideational vs. structural variables gained the dominant status. In the realm of social policy the ideology of family planning was replaced by population policy ideology. It is further argued that alarming discourses and sharp rhetoric about population problems did not result in formulation of a system of specific measures of population policy. Thus, the author claims, demographic discourses that at the time saturated public spaces were constitutive for - gender and national -identity politics and not inconsequential for social policy.