Family policy of the Russian state in the face of grand challenges: Main problems and contradiction

Abstract

Introduction: one of the most important great challenges is the demographic transition which brings about changes in people’s life styles, aging of the population and the expansion of various kinds of social, sometimes rather destructive, experiments. This, in turn, requires adequate actions on the part of the state, development of an effective social policy that can offset the effects of major challenges, as well as destructive hybrid influences both within the country and from outside. Objectives: to identify the main problems and contradictions of the state family policy in Russia, to assess its adequacy against the trends in modern societies development. Methods: formal-logical, comparative, secondary data analysis, content analysis. Results: a number of directions in transformation of family life and their manifestations in Russia have been identified; main discursive and practical aspects of the state family policy have been analyzed as well as its key dysfunctions. Conclusions: family resilience as a social institution has not changed significantly over the past 20 years. However, the number of Russians who are ready to justify abortion is declining, and, conversely, the number of those who are ready to justify divorce is increasing. The family today is still constructed as an institution of social control and reproduction of rigid gender roles. Moreover, in recent decades, certain strata of Russian society have returned to traditional conservative models of close relationships. State family policy is unable to neutralize the negative consequences of grand challenges and needs to be rethought. Its key dysfunction is the rigidity of discursive and social practices, ignorance of the real changes that are taking place in close relationships today. In addition, family policy is poorly integrated with other areas of state policy: there are no uniform methodological approaches to lifelong human development.