Something we've inherited from the Sovied Union - the majority of people live in apartment blocks. And those blocks are almost exclusively 2 or 3 room apartments. 4 room or larger apartments are RARE and consequently very expensive. Buying or building a house is equally as expensive. Surprisingly, even in new apartment blocks (there are some built here and there), most apartments seem to be 3-room apartments. And, of course, those are about twice as expensive as apartments in older blocks. So if you want a large family, you'll have a really hard time finding a big enough place to live.

Hi there! I'm from Latvia! :) I don't have any data - so just a comment from me - but the impression from ground zero here is, indeed, that this is mostly money-related. Although we do enjoy a fairly westernized lifestyle, the average wage is still fairlylow compared to other countries. Just last year it finally surpassed 1000€/month before taxes - that's about 743€ after taxes. That's not a lot. Not if you want to have 2+ kids. In addition, the real estate market is also against large families. [contd.]

I don't know much about laws 'n stuff, but this seems like a really weird law, and an even weirder thing to put in the constitution.

Sorry for my bad English, but what does "quartering" mean in this case? Dictionary didn't help.

@Aaron - OK, I think I spoke poorly. It's not that I disagree, but none of the top answers touch on the three points that you just did. They try to justify the need for a military (which is OK), but they don't answer my main assumption that a potential attacker would be afraid of backlash from its own people/allies (which, yes, history shows to be false).

Well then. Case closed.

While I don't think it's the only reason for military's existence, it does seem reasonable to me that it's a significant factor, yes.

My idea was that if the goverment of IRQ decided to attack KWT, then IRQ's own population and allies would be appalled at their decision. Treaties and trade negotiations would be broken; there would be massive internal civil unrest and calls for the goverment to step down (and if they refused, rebellion). Since nobody wants that, IRQ would abstain from attacking KWT. However I see now that this fails if IRQ has managed to slander KWT enough for its population and/or allies to dislike them too. Although I think it would require pretty much slandering, bordering on religious propaganda.