Pronatalism as Reproductive Accumulation

• In Event: Demographic Anxieties

Abstract

Concurrent demographic and economic crises in the United States threaten the stability of today’s capitalist political economy. Pronatalists argue that state intervention to increase childbirth can counteract potential consequences of low fertility and population aging, restabilizing economic and cultural institutions. Although contemporary U.S. pronatalist policy and rhetoric remain rooted in conservative marginalism, I argue that pronatal logics prove theoretically incoherent within a model of rational choice, reflecting the capitalist struggle to reconcile the dialectic of individual agency and collective motivation, without undermining the primacy of individualism inherent to American conservatism. Theorizing with Marx and Federici, I model pronatalism as reproductive accumulation, presenting procreative control as a critical element for capitalists to maintain domination over the labor supply and processes of social reproduction. Understanding the coincident individual and collective dimensions of population change is necessary to develop equitable, humane responses to the challenges associated with the evolving age structure in the U.S.

Author

• Sarah Sullivan, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor