ABSTRACT
A common and trans-continental phenomenon that looked more worrying than the fall in mortality was the decline in the birth rate. Together with the behavior of the death rate, it resulted in increasingly aged societies. The general decline in natality did, however, demonstrate striking national differences. The lowest levels in Western Europe occurred — whether or not by coincidence — in countries which had faced the greatest traumas and national humiliations in the 1930s and 1940s: Germany, Italy and Spain. The domestic political game in European countries also changed, in that the extent of embeddedness in an international economy, in which factors of production were highly mobile, limited the possibilities for direct redistribution. Some Europeans thought of McKinseys and McDonald’s as diabolical Scottish or Anglo-Saxon twins set on a course of cultural conquest. Europe’s most popular sport, football, became overshadowed by just a few highly celebrated teams which dominated national championship competitions.
