Global Population Policy

From Population Control to Reproductive Rights

Paige Whaley Eager

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781351933285
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Sociology
• Index: Social Sciences

The general assumption throughout history has been that a growing population is beneficial for societies. By the mid-1960s, however, the United States and other developed countries became convinced that population control was an absolute necessity, especially in the developing world. This absorbing study explains why population control is no longer the focus of global population policy and why reproductive rights and health have become the major focus. The book highlights the role that the US and other developed countries play in affecting global population policy, looking in particular at the stance of the George W. Bush administration since taking office. It also studies the influence of the UN as an international forum and explores how civil society questioned the ethics of population control. Global Population Policy will appeal to a wide audience, including readers in the fields of women's studies, development politics and international relations.

Chapter 1

Global Population Policy: Past and Present

Introduction

In the years after WWII, the developed world began to direct its attention toward the third world. The wave of decolonization post-WWII engendered engaging debates within the developed world regarding the path the third world should follow in order to become more developed. One important part of the development debate focused on population growth in the developing world. The United States, along with a few other developed countries, determined that the developing world needed to decrease population growth in order to have any hope of achieving economic growth and development. Thus, the main message the United States brought to the developing world was that population control would help in its quest for development. In other words, fewer people being born into poverty would in the end help a country grow economically. Also, the developed world argued that any economic gains made were being outstripped by out-of-control population growth. Population control was propagated as the main norm¹ guiding global population policy from 1965 until 1994.

Prior to the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (hereafter referred to as the Cairo conference), population policy was narrowly defined as formal statements by governments of a perceived national problem, solutions, and desired goals and objectives along with a systematic organizational plan of implementation (Dixon-Mueller 1993: 15). Before the 1994 Cairo conference, it was assumed that governments assembled at future world population and development conferences would continue to commit themselves to the idea that global population policy ought to be first and foremost concerned with decreasing women’s fertility rates, especially in developing countries. Prior to the Cairo conference, women often were conceptualized and treated as the means through which the goal of population control was to be achieved.

The Cairo conference signaled a paradigm shift in the issue area of global population policy. Reproductive rights² and health emerged at Cairo as the new norm dominating discussions about global population policy. Cairo declared that women were no longer to be treated as a convenient means toward the “end” of population control. Global population policy prior to Cairo sanctioned demographic goals, quantitative quotas and acceptors,³ and often coercive methods. Moreover, population policy prior to Cairo often failed to acknowledge and prioritize women’s human rights. Although most global population policy documents called for the respect of universally recognized human rights and women’s voluntary participation in family planning programs, governments sometimes argue that it was within their sovereign right to implement often controversial and sometimes draconian population control policies in order to decrease population growth. At Cairo, these arguments were deemed inappropriate and illegitimate forms of behavior. Cairo proclaimed that women have the right to control their reproductive capabilities free of coercion, violence, and discrimination by governments and non-state actors.

A Puzzle of Interest

Understanding why and how this change occurred at the Cairo conference is the main puzzle driving this analysis. Why was an entire chapter of the Cairo Program of Action called “Reproductive Rights and Health?” In all previous UN global conference documents on population, there is no mention whatsoever of the phrase reproductive rights. Where did reproductive rights come from then and how did this language find its way into the Cairo Program of Action? The concept of reproductive rights did not suddenly drop down from the sky in 1994. Rather, the term appears in some feminist literature as early as the late 1970s. Even though many observers characterize the Cairo conference as a paradigm shift in the field of global population policy in the sense that the language, assumptions, and norms supporting population control were supplanted by the language, assumptions, and norms supporting reproductive rights and health, there are no analyses which address how this unexpected outcome succeeded in revolutionizing the field.

I argue a constructivist approach⁴ can illuminate processes of normative change at the international level. The main goal of this study then is to utilize a constructivist approach in order to trace the process through which, over the past thirty years, a population control norm and discourse has become delegitimized and a reproductive rights and health norm and discourse has become legitimized. It was in no way inevitable that population control would be supplanted by reproductive rights and health. I draw upon existing theoretical and empirical work on international norms, global governance, social movements, and constructivism to develop my own model of normative change and nascent norm emergence. The model explicated in this chapter and throughout the book should not be viewed as an invariant model, nor should one view the processes I describe as sequentially ordered in a predetermined manner.

This chapter will provide an overview of the case study and explore theoretical questions regarding norm change, norm emergence, and the utility of UN global conferences in general. Moreover, I explicate the five integral processes in my model of normative change. The chapter will discuss some of the reasons normative change in this issue area was exceedingly difficult, which will provide the reader with an overview of this issue area. Before delving into the empirics and theoretical questions explored in this study, a brief discussion of the methodology used to conduct this analysis is warranted.

Methodology

Qualitative research is pragmatic, interpretive, and grounded in the lived experiences of people (Marshall and Rossman 1999: 2). Although there is no blueprint for qualitative research, it is largely grounded in a philosophical science which is broadly interpretivist in the sense that it is concerned with how the social world is interpreted, understood, or produced (Mason 1996: 4). In the spirit of constructivism, this single case study utilizes the following methods of data collection: interviews, primary document analysis, and secondary resources. Through data source triangulation (Yin 1994: 92), a single case study done well can illuminate questions of broader theoretical relevance and significance. A case study is appropriate when the form of the research question is how or why, when there is no control over behavioral events, and when there is a focus on contemporary events (Yin 1994: 6). Case studies are able to address a variety of evidence and serve five main purposes: testing theories, creating theories, identifying antecedent conditions, testing the importance of antecedent conditions, and explaining cases of intrinsic importance (Van Evera 1997: 67).

Although this research is an examination of one case study in depth, informed observations will offer insights on the process through which norms change and emerge in issue areas of global policymaking. Due to the chronological nature of the analysis, process-tracing is utilized. In process-tracing, the investigator explores the chain of events or the decision-making process by which initial case conditions are translated into outcomes. Process tracing is unique for no other theories predict the same pattern of events or the same actor testimony on their motives (Van Evera 1997: 63-66). In spite of criticisms launched by some positivists against interpretivist case studies, a thorough process trace of a single case study can provide a strong test of theory. Alexander George contends that process-tracing permits a researcher to examine how actors’ beliefs influence behavior (Yee 1996: 77). Although George focuses on individuals’ subjective beliefs and ideas, process-tracing can also help explore how collectively held ideas and intersubjectively shared values and norms about what constitutes appropriate and inappropriate behavior affect global public policies.⁵ In other words, George’s individual level of analysis should not deter one from utilizing process-tracing at a different level of analysis or the systemic level.

A quality case study is dependent upon well-designed interviews (Rubin and Rubin 1995). Moreover, qualitative interviewing refers to in-depth, semi-structured forms of interviewing.⁶ Hence, the first method of data collection was conducting interviews⁷ with key actors who participated in the Cairo conference held in 1994 or who are involved in the global women’s health and rights movement. In addition, interviews were conducted with those opposed to the nascent norm of reproductive rights.⁸ Fifteen in-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted. I conducted half of the interviews in New York City and Washington, D.C. from February to April 2002. The other interviews were conducted via phone. All of the interviews were tape recorded and transcribed word for word. Interviewees were also permitted to review the interview transcript once it was transcribed. A few of the respondents made this request. Subsequently, the respondent altered those interview transcripts only slightly. Any quotes used by these respondents are from the altered transcripts. Interviewees have been granted the right to view any attributions prior to publication. One interviewee requested anonymity.

A decade has elapsed since Cairo; therefore, it is inevitable that memories have faded somewhat. However, by checking interviewees’ comments against the primary and secondary sources, every attempt was made to corroborate attributions made by interviewees regarding the role certain actors played in the Cairo process. A key area focused upon in interviews with individuals working on reproductive rights and health issues was attributions made regarding the importance of strategy and the utility in building coalitions and alliances with other like-minded actors. Most constructivist literature consistently refers to the reflexivity of actors whereby actors purposively or intentionally monitor their own actions and the activities of other agents. Some social movement scholars also acknowledge the reality of reflexivity and argue that it is indicative of the post-modern world. Actors are not mere bearers of structures or dupes of culture (Jasper 1997: 65). Rather they act reflexively; actors monitor their actions and the outcomes, make adjustments, imagine new goals and possibilities, and respond to others.

A second source of data collection was primary document analysis. The primary written material includes: United States Congressional hearings and legislation, United Nations agency publications, proceedings from conferences pertaining to the issues addressed in this research, The New York Times, and other assorted primary materials. Through the analysis of these materials, I was able to corroborate the information provided by interviewees. Even though I was unable to secure interviews with some of the more prominent figures surrounding this debate past and present, the language used to discuss these issues in a public forum were available from these other sources to help me reconstruct the discourse or communicative interaction.

The third leg of data source triangulation consisted of secondary resources on this topic. The secondary literature on this topic is vast and spans the three decades under investigation for this research. Secondary resources provided much of the historical background for this case study and were important in understanding the progression of events in international family planning, population control, and reproductive rights and health. Secondary resources also helped me initially to identify important organizations and individuals for interviewing.

Consistent with the spirit of qualitative research, expectations of perfect data replication are not feasible. However, research validity and generalizability are still important. The methods chosen to conduct this research allowed me to observe and identify my puzzle of interest. Moreover, although previously stated that I am not attempting to construct an invariant, processual model of normative change and emergence, I do contend that my research is generalizable to the extent that the conclusions reached do make some form of a wider claim about understanding the process of normative change and nascent norm emergence in other issue areas. My processual model of normative change and nascent norm emergence can be empirically tested by conducting other case studies.

Finally, I wish to address researcher bias. I support most of the general goals of the global women’s health and rights movement. I admire the work that many of these activists commit their lives to; however, this does mean that my research is therefore invalid. All research is value-biased. We, as social scientists, research those things about which we care deeply. We may be repulsed by or attracted to the social phenomena we research; however, we are rarely, if ever, indifferent. If we were indifferent, we would not have the interest to sustain the months and often years necessary to undertake thorough analyses.

In order to appreciate the non-determined nature of the normative change from population control to reproductive rights and health, it is informative to examine, albeit briefly, the major challenges to normative change in this specific issue area. The next section is intended to provide readers an indication of why this case study offered a rich empirical and theoretical opportunity for analysis.

Impediments to Normative Change

This section elucidates six reasons why this case study encompasses both empirical and theoretical complexity. After extensively reviewing the secondary literature on this topic, I deduced the following impediments in changing the discourse, norms, and language from population control to reproductive rights and health. Each of these barriers to normative change will be discussed more completely in subsequent chapters.

First, the dominant power in the international system, the United States, was not supportive of the normative change to reproductive rights and health until the inauguration of Bill Clinton in January 1993. In fact, the United States was the state actor within the international system that initially propagated the population control norm. The reasons why the United States believed that fertility rates had to decline around the world will be explored in depth in Chapters 2 and 3. Upon the election of conservative presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, the U.S.-based women’s health and rights movement faced a hostile administration, which sought to equate reproductive rights simply with abortion. While the Reagan and Bush administrations did not support population control efforts as eagerly as had previous Democratic and Republican administrations, the White ...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Global Health
• Acknowledgments
• List of Abbreviations
• 1 Global Population Policy: Past and Present
• 2 Population Control as Global Policy
• 3 The Winds of Change: A New Approach to Global Population Policy
• 4 The Global Women’s Health and Rights Movement
• 5 Reproductive Rights as an International Norm
• 6 After Cairo: Consolidation or Backlash?
• 7 Norms, UN Global Conferences, and Constructivism
• Appendix
• Bibliography
• Index