Conservativism\u2019s emphasis on formative institutions gives it a unique appreciation for the role and importance of the family in raising children and shaping the habits and character of all its members. Families also serve a crucial social and political function, transmitting the community\u2019s traditions, norms, and expectations to the next generation. The work done across centuries by preeminent thinkers in describing the family\u2019s enduring roles is essential to the task of preserving those roles for an uncertain future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Edmund Burke,<\/strong> Reflections on the Revolution in France<\/em>. Burke located the roots of patriotism and citizenship in the family unit, noting that \u201cwe begin our public affections in our families,\u201d whose model of care shapes our approach to broader obligations, and which \u201cwe pass on to our neighborhoods\u201d as well as to the nation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Liberty Fund<\/a>, 1999. 476 pages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Selection: Page 181. Liberty Fund<\/a>, 1999.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Alexis de Tocqueville,<\/strong> Democracy in America<\/em>. Tocqueville famously observed that America\u2019s local institutions were essential to maintaining its democratic spirit. Chief among these was the family, which resisted atomization and cultivated habits of self-government. \u201cAs long as the spirit of the family lasted,\u201d Tocqueville wrote, \u201cman who struggled against tyranny was never alone.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n University of Chicago Press<\/a>, 2000. 722 pages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Selection: “Chapter 9: Of the Principal Causes That Tend to Maintain the Democratic Republic in the United States,” Liberty Fund<\/em><\/a>, 2010. 64 pages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Carle Zimmerman,<\/strong> Family & Civilization. <\/em>Zimmerman, an acclaimed Harvard sociologist, analyzed the relationship between the state of the family and the health of a civilization. Drawing upon nations ancient and modern, he outlined the implications of family structure and family breakdown on society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Intercollegiate Studies Institute<\/a>, 1947. 352 pages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Michael Novak<\/em><\/strong>,<\/strong> “The Family Out of Favor<\/a>.” <\/em>Novak argues that fewer Americans instinctively recognize the importance of family because the leading institutions of public life are oriented to individuals seeking \u201cliberation\u201d rather than families seeking continuity. The \u201cantifamily sentiments\u201d in contemporary culture, especially those pioneered by large corporations and universities, thus \u201cdiminish the moral and economic importance of the family.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Harper’s Magazine<\/em><\/a>, April 1976. 3500 words.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The prevailing structures of family life that evolved over the centuries have splintered in recent decades. With the emergence of the \u201cnuclear family,\u201d extended family members have been excluded from the task of childrearing and homemaking. In the ensuing decades, the nuclear family faced pressure from the push for women to prioritize careers, the sexual revolution, and legal reforms that gave rise to amorphous social norms. While such changes have justly celebrated benefits, they have come with substantial costs too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The two-parent family, once the norm in American society, has weakened as divorce and one-parent households have been normalized across much of American society. Mutually reinforcing social norms and public policies have spurred this decline, with social and economic consequences that have affected children and reverberated into subsequent generations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Daniel Patrick Moynihan,<\/strong> The Negro Family: The Case for National Action<\/em>. Daniel Patrick Moynihan\u2019s report on black poverty identified the breakdown of the family and the rise of single motherhood, not economic forces, as the root cause of intergenerational poverty. Urban ghettos, he argued, perpetuated negative cultural and family norms within the black community. His conclusion was that government policy should prioritize stable family formation to make possible sustained economic growth within urban communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n U.S. Department of Labor Office of Policy Planning<\/a> (1965). 50 pages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Andrew J. Cherlin,<\/strong> “The Deinstitutionalization of American Marriage.” <\/em>Cherlin, a sociology professor, argues that the \u201cweakening of the social norms that define partners’ behavior\u201d has transformed marriage into a primarily symbolic institution for personal achievement, rather than a social institution for having and raising children. Shifting norms around cohabitation, in particular, contributed to this process of \u201cdeinstitutionalization.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Journal of Marriage and Family<\/em><\/a>, 2004. <\/em>8300 words.<\/p>\n\n\n\n W. Bradford Wilcox,<\/strong> “The Evolution of Divorce.”<\/em> Wilcox delves into the consequences of no-fault divorce over the past half-century, linking it to a perception of marriage as an extension of the personal self. Such legal and cultural changes have led, he argues, to rising rates of divorce, falling rates of marriage, and worsening outcomes for children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n National Affairs<\/em><\/a>, 2009. 5400 words.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Charles Murray,<\/strong> Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960\u20132010.<\/em> Murray charts the evolving social structures of the white working class, showing that the same trends that had alarmed Moynihan in predominantly black, urban communities two generations earlier now appeared as a function of class, rather than race. Social pathologies like declining marriage rates and increasing out-of-wedlock births had become so deeply embedded in the white working class by the 2000s that Murray questions \u201cthe viability of white working-class communities as a place for socializing the next generation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Crown Forum<\/a>, 2012. 432 pages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Selection: “Chapter 8. Marriage.” 19 pages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Robert Putnam,<\/strong> Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis<\/em>. Putnam describes the yawning opportunity gap between the lower- and upper-class children and details the ways in which different family norms and parenting practices\u2014what parents do \u201cto<\/em> and for<\/em> their kids\u201d\u2014affect children\u2019s long-term outcomes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Simon & Schuster<\/a>, 2015. 400 pages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Selection: “Chapter 2. Families.” 35 pages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n David Brooks,<\/strong> “The Nuclear Family Was a<\/em> Mistake.” <\/em>Brooks illustrates the demise of the extended family in America over the 19th <\/sup>and 20th<\/sup> century and notes how it was displaced by an ill-equipped, isolated, nuclear family. Nuclear families are less resilient than extended families, he argued, which have the capacity to support members in the event of crisis. Brooks attributes these changes to the Industrial Revolution and the post-war economic boom that made the nuclear family more economically feasible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Atlantic<\/em><\/a>, March 2020. 9000 words.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fertility throughout the developed world has steadily declined for several decades; nearly all developed countries now have fertility rates below replacement. Though the consequences of falling fertility have not yet been fully realized, they will inevitably shape American life for generations to come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ross Douthat,<\/strong> “More Babies, Please.” <\/em>High religiosity and a low cost-of-living once led the United States to have a higher birth rate than other developed nations. No longer: America\u2019s birth rate is now lower than some European nations. Most troubling, Douthat observes, is that our falling birth rate may, in fact, be a product of an exhausted culture that has chosen modern comforts over \u201cthe basic sacrifices that built our civilization.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The New York Times<\/em><\/a>, December 2012. 800 words.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jonathan V. Last<\/em><\/strong>,<\/strong> What to Expect When No One’s Expecting: America’s Coming Demographic Disaster<\/em>. Last notes that greater access to contraception and abortion have made it easier for Americans to avoid having children while the rising costs and difficulties of childrearing have penalized parents more so than in past generations. The economic and social consequences of America\u2019s rapidly falling birthrate, such as low economic growth and unaffordable entitlement spending, have been and will continue to undermine the nation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Encounter Books<\/a>, 2013. 240 pages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Over the last half-century, the culture surrounding family life has changed dramatically\u2013arguably more so than in any other sphere of American life. Norms of marriage and childbearing have weakened, both have become less common, and the connection between the two has frayed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Myron Magnet,<\/strong> The Dream and the Nightmare: The Sixties’ Legacy to the Underclass. <\/em>Magnet argues that the liberal social values promoted by the upper classes during the 1960s eroded traditional family and social structures. While leaving the upper class largely unscathed, these changes inflicted harm on lower-class Americans who depended upon such structures and instead found themselves relying on ones that led toward vicious cycle of poverty and social malaise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Encounter Books<\/a>, 1993. 238 pages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n George A. Akerlof and Janet Yellen,<\/strong> “New Mothers, Not Married: Technology shock, the demise of shotgun marriage, and the increase in out-of-wedlock births.” <\/em>Akerlof and Yellen analyzed the rise of out-of-wedlock births in the U.S. and identified the widespread acceptance of contraception and the decline of ‘shotgun marriages’ as the leading factors refashioning relationships between the sexes. According to their analysis, women \u201cwho reliably used contraception no longer found it necessary to condition sexual relations on a promise of marriage in the event of pregnancy.\u201d Without this condition, women placed themselves at greater risk of becoming pregnant with an uncommitted partner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Brookings Institution<\/a>, 1996. 2300 words.<\/p>\n\n\n\n See also: “An Analysis of Out-of-Wedlock Childbearing in the United States,” The Quarterly Journal of Economics<\/em><\/a>, May 1996. 41 pages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kathryn Edin and Maria Kefalas,<\/strong> Promises I Can Keep: Why Poor Women Put Motherhood Before Marriage. <\/em>Edin and Kefalas investigate the reasons poor women have children before marriage. They find that, for these women, marriage \u201cis no longer primarily about childbearing and childrearing. Now marriage is primarily about adult fulfillment.\u201d Many see that milestone as unachievable or else further in their future and disconnected from their decisions about motherhood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n University of California Press<\/a>, 2005. 300 pages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Eli Finkel,<\/strong> “The All-or-Nothing Marriage.” <\/em>Finkel identifies two consensus views on marriage: that marriage has become stronger since people choose to marry only when they want to, and that marriage has weakened as an institution because more people are getting divorced, or not married at all. Finkel says that reality is a mix of these views. Marriage has become stronger for the wealthier and better educated, whose divorce rates have stabilized over the last half-century. But for most Americans, marriage has declined in importance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The New York Times<\/em><\/a>, February 2014. 1600 words.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The origins of family breakdown are not a result of \u201cculture\u201d alone. Public policy has changed the incentives and institutions governing family life, and of course policy influences culture as well. However unintentionally, government programs relating to marriage and the welfare state have abetted America\u2019s falling rates of marriage and rising rates of out-of-wedlock birth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Charles Murray, <\/strong>Losing Ground: American Social Policy, 1950\u20131980. <\/em>Murray\u2019s examination of Great Society programs showed how the welfare state perpetuated and even exacerbated family breakdown and poverty by altering the incentives surrounding childbearing, marriage, and work. Murray\u2019s analyses and conclusions inspired Republican-led efforts to reform federal welfare in the 1990s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Basic Books<\/a>, 1984. 352 pages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Scott Yenor,<\/strong> “The Form and Function of the American Family.” <\/em>Writing about the central role that families play in American democracy, Yenor critiques American public policy for having run \u201ca series of social experiments on the importance of marital form.\u201d Since the 1960s, most U.S. public policy has been ambivalent about traditional family structure and the results have been devastating for families. Yenor argues that public policy can be used for good, however, and that government should take a greater interest in \u201cpromoting marriage, procreation, and responsible parenthood.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n National Affairs<\/em><\/a>, 2018. 5700 words.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The family exists, in part, as an economic institution that provides material security amid turbulent economic forces, but also finds itself shaped by those forces. America\u2019s transition to a post-industrial economy and the changes this wrought for both labor markets and consumption habits has undermined the economic foundations of family formation and made the middle-class lifestyle increasingly unaffordable on a single income.<\/p>\n\n\n\n William Julius Wilson,<\/strong> The Truly Disadvantaged: The Inner City, the Underclass, and Public Policy. <\/em>Unlike the neoconservative who argued that family breakdown was the root cause of urban poverty, Wilson focused on shortage of jobs for less-educated men. Without work, he argued, men are deemed less \u2018marriageable\u2019 by women and are less likely to settle down and raise a family. Public policy, he concludes, should focus on improving a community\u2019s<\/em> economic prospects rather than providing an income to individuals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n University of Chicago Press<\/a>, 1987. 261 pages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Elizabeth Warren and Amelia Warren Tyagi,<\/strong> The Two-Income Trap: Why Middle-Class Parents Are (Still) Going Broke.<\/em> Warren and Tyagi examined the economic consequences of women entering the workforce en masse. The rise of the two-earner household, they argued, left households with less financial flexibility and fueled a bidding war that drove up the costs of housing and childcare. Even as households double their incomes, affording a middle-class lifestyle remained challenging. Families preferring to have only one parent in the workforce faced prohibitive budgetary strain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Basic Books<\/a>, 2004. 288 pages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Oren Cass,<\/strong> “The Cost-of-Thriving Index: Reevaluating the Prosperity of the American Family<\/em>.” <\/em>Cass highlights an \u201cirreconcilable\u201d divergence between economic data, which suggest that wages have risen faster than prices, and the experience of many American families who find it harder than ever to make ends meet. He argues that standard measures of inflation fail to account for many of the ways that household costs rise and proposes a new formula for measuring the cost of living: The Cost of Thriving Index (COTI). COTI tracks the prices of a typical family\u2019s major expenditures\u2014housing, health care, education, and transportation\u2014and finds that a median male wage can no longer cover them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Manhattan Institute<\/a>, 2020. 9500 words.<\/p>\n\n\n\n American families are not just having fewer children; they\u2019re having fewer children than they would like. Thus, falling birthrates not only threaten the future prosperity of the nation, but also frustrate people\u2019s own ambitions. In principle, \u201cpro-natalist\u201d public policy could make it easier for couples to have children. In practice, the challenge is a vexing one.<\/p>\n\n\n\nPart II: What Happened<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Family Breakdown<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
\n
Declining Fertility<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
\n
Part III: Explanations<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Culture<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
\n
Policy<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
\n
Economy<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
\n
Part IV: Modern Debates<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Natalism<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
\n