Immanence and transcendence: The relationship between patterns of family decision making and fertility among catholics and protestants

Swanson attributes the spread of Protestantism and the Reformation vis-a-vis the existence of Catholicism to the form of governance in European societies. This article takes up Swanson's theoretical framework and studies the Catholic fertility differential - one of the behavioral patterns that differentiate Catholics from Protestants - in the light of this pattem-of-decision- making approach. It is found that a contemporary American woman living in a family with a pattern of decision making similar to the sociological setting that was conducive to the existence of Catholicism in the past would have higher fertility, regardless of her religious preference and her marital age. In addition, this effect of patterns of family decision making on fertility would not be dependent on her religion. The lack of association between patterns of decision making and religious preferences suggests that collective purposes are rather uniform between Catholics and Protestants in America.