Sociological assessment of the changes in the development of family institution in China as an object of state policy

The article identifies the potential of the sociological assessment as a means of management and evaluation of the state family policy results on the example of the People’s Republic of China (hereinafter - China). The authors conducted a comprehensive analysis of the changes occurring in the development of the family institution in China on the basis of objective and subjective indicators, which can be considered a testing of the research methodology for the state family policy as a sustainable institutional phenomenon in the contemporary densely populated countries, which still lacks scientific studies at both theoretical and empirical levels. Based on their own research tool the authors schematically reconstruct the empirically confirmed results and consequences of the state family policy in China and its impact on the transformation of the Chinese family as a social institution. The results of the empirical study confirm the obviously positive changes in the Chinese family under the implemented family policy and at the same time reveal some negative aspects of the state family and demographic policy, which point to the underestimation of the state family policy potential. The authors want to show this potential on the basis of their empirical data, and claim that management of the state family policy should use sociological assessment tools to improve its social efficiency.