What Greenhalgh (1995) calls ìclassic transition theoryî draws heavily on
the basic assumptions and causal relationships of modernization theory.
There are two strands to this. The first strand focuses on the level of socioeconomic
development and takes as its model the process of development in
the West and concomitant increases in income, urbanization and
industrialization. These are theorized as the key mechanisms through which
a shift from high to lower fertility rÈgimes via reductions in mortality rates
is achieved. The second strand of both transition and modernization theory
highlights the norms and values of traditional societies as the major
impediment to change. Because theories of modernization as well as of
demographic transition are modelled on the experience of Western
countries, there is a frequent slippage in this literature between concepts of
ìmodernizationî and ìWesternizationî in descriptions of the shift from
tradition to modernity and from high to low fertility. The precise
mechanisms by which this is thought to occur are not clearly specified but
some combination of the shift to urban patterns of life, higher levels of
education of parents and of educational aspirations for children together
with the spread of new ideas through education and media were presumed to
be significant in changing the perceived economics of child bearing for
parents (Simmons, 1985).