Reflections on the mechanism of demographic transition

Some assumptions inherent in the concept of demographic transition are considered. "In accordance with many of these assumptions reproduction of the population is characterized by homeostasis towards [the] ecological and social environment. Long-term ecological social and demographic stability is reached as a result of the process of adaptation in which births deaths and migration jointly or independently play a main part. In this process numbers of births and deaths equalize in principle one another. The old stability is destroyed by processes connected with modernization and by establishment of the environment on [a] higher level than before...." The process of demographic transition is seen as an adaptation by the population to meet new conditions primarily involving the control of fertility. (SUMMARY IN ENG AND RUS) (EXCERPT)