The concept of electoral law and the electoral system of the Russian Federation

Today, suffrage is one of the most important rights of citizens, confirmed by the Constitution of the Russian Federation. This is the basis of a democratic free society, which can by its own will influence the state.

The essence of the phenomenon

The modern concept of Russia's electoral law and electoral system was formulated in 1994 in the law "On Basic Guarantees of Electoral Rights of Citizens of the Russian Federation". This document has become epoch-making. He determined all the subsequent direction of development of the Russian electoral system to this day.

The concept of electoral law and the electoral system was laid in the mid-1990s. At the same time, elections of a new type (the State Duma of the second convocation and the president of the country) were held for the first time. The stable work of the parliament began. In 1995-1996 years. In many regions of Russia for the first time there were general elections of mayors, heads of municipalities, governors, etc.

Thanks to the federal law, democratic principles of organizational support for elections have become real - openness, publicity, transparency of all related actions and procedures. The concept of Russia's electoral law and electoral system includes a system of election commissions. They are able to effectively solve non-standard and complex tasks related to the preparation and conduct of democratic, competitive elections. The commission is a well-established instrument for exercising the electoral rights of the inhabitants of the Russian Federation.

Election legislation

In 1995, significant work was carried out to draft new legislation on the election of parliament deputies. Since then, several corrections have been made to it, but its essence has remained the same. How does the suffrage appear in this area? The concept, principles, system were adopted by Western democracies in spite of the former communist system. Although the Soviet system externally possessed all the attributes of democracy, in reality it was a screen that allowed a single party to conduct without problems a policy that was being let down from the Politburo.

The new concept of electoral law and the electoral system enshrined the right of citizens to make their own free choice of a representative in parliament. The multi-party system that emerged after the collapse of the totalitarian regime of the CPSU was confirmed. At the same time, a 5% barrier was established for the federal parliament. The party, wishing to get into the State Duma, had to collect the necessary number of votes for this.

In total there were 450 deputies in the new Parliament. In the upcoming elections in 2016, half of the people's deputies will be determined by party lists. Another part of the deputies is elected in single-mandate constituencies. The territory of Russia consists of 225 such territorial entities. So in the State Duma not only party, but also regional interests are represented.

Public law

The modern concept of the electoral system and the electoral law of the Russian Federation exists in two dimensions: political-legal and formal-legal. What is their difference? In a formal sense, Russian electoral law is the codification of legally recognized guarantees and the conditions for the emergence of political freedom of citizens. Its significance is great: it makes certainty in the relations between the population of the country and the state. The electoral law establishes the limits of government interference in the life of society. At the same time, laws protect the state from criminal encroachments of ordinary citizens who do not want to use legitimate tools in political struggle.

The concept of elections, electoral law and the electoral system from the political and legal point of view is the following: it is the catalog of obligations of rights that are mandatory for the subjects involved in the electoral process during its organization and conduct. Without these phenomena, it is impossible to imagine modern democracy. Therefore, for legitimate continuity of power, it is so important to designate in the legislation the concept of the electoral law and the electoral system of the Russian Federation. Does it include actions to organize and hold elections? So it is, because it is through them that the power is transferred and acquired.

The suffrage is also a branch of public law. It is directly related to political activity. However, suffrage affects only a small part of it related to elections. There are other aspects, the essence of which is described in the Constitution.

Types of suffrage

In jurisprudence, law is divided into objective and subjective. This division extends to all its types. The relationship between subjective and objective suffrage is the relationship between the content and form of public political law. They are closely interrelated.

Objective suffrage is the source of subjective suffrage. It consists of several legal norms that determine the responsibilities and responsibilities of election participants at each stage. Subjective suffrage is in itself the right of a citizen to participate in the electoral process. For him, there are restrictions - the age criterion and the qualification of citizenship. Although the right to vote in Russia was also in the Soviet era, those elections were very different from the current model and had little in common with today's electoral process.

Trust of citizens

Today the concept, system, sources of the electoral right are determined by the legal norms established in the legislation. It regulates political elections, which, in turn, form a legitimate power. This is why the fact of citizens' trust is extremely important in this area of law. Without the residents' confidence in the correctness of the system, there can not be an established political and democratic culture. The correlation between the concepts of "suffrage", "electoral system" and other legal terms remains meaningless if the society does not have a civic self-awareness. Democratic tools work only in countries where people feel themselves a source of power.

Since the collapse of the USSR in Russia, a new political culture has arisen and is developing, which is designed to give residents of the country confidence in their own political significance. This is done in various ways: through the education of younger generations, as well as new elections, referendums, preliminary party polls.

Russian realities

In order for society to be able to take a fresh look at Russian statehood, he had to go through a whole era of crisis development. It includes the renunciation of the communist heritage, as well as the confrontation between the head of state and the parliament in 1993. In that conflict, the interests of the executive and legislative branches of power collided. In the end, all ended in bloodshed in Moscow and the famous shots of television news with the bombardment of the White House. But it was precisely after those October events that the country managed to adopt a new Constitution, in which the norms of electoral law were established. Citizens were given the right to express their attitude to the main document of the country in a general referendum, which in itself became an important sign of political progress in the Russian Federation.

The concept of electoral law and the electoral system of the Russian Federation appeared along with other important features of the new statehood. First of all, the division of powers and responsibility for their decisions to the inhabitants of the country was enshrined. Today, suffrage and the electoral process have an important function. They visually fix the nature of power, its social dynamics. It is on the state of the electoral law in the country that one can determine the real and not the declared nature of power. This is an indicator of the state of the state institutions, norms, values and legal awareness of society.

The dual nature

There are two important features that summarize the suffrage. The concept, principles, system of this phenomenon show whether there exists a legitimate instrument for the replacement of power. Regular rotation in the state apparatus has always been and will be the most important characteristic of democracy. And only effectively working suffrage can provide it on an ongoing basis.

Another important feature is the many sources of democracy. Electoral technologies and their modifications are necessary in order to collect disparate parts of public sovereignty and delegate it to elected representatives. The bearer of power is every citizen. All together, the inhabitants of the country can distribute the sovereignty that they are endowed with between their chosen ones. So the political public-law corporation of power is born (and then it is replaced).

The electoral law (concept, principles, system, sources are the object of our article) regulates the use of important resources. This is the time of staying in power, the methods of its use and endowment in a vast and diverse public space. The nature of the suffrage is dual. On the one hand, it is necessary for the normal reproduction of elective executive and legislative institutions of power. On the other hand, it itself must protect the state, for example, from claims to its monopoly on the use of power institutions by various ethnoconfessional, political and bureaucratic groups.

Selective technologies

Electoral technologies play an extremely important role in changing the system of relations within power and democratic transition to modern state forms. What it is? These include the procedures and rules on which to build a system responsible to the citizens of power, which by default laid the principle of periodic rotation and rotation.

The most important elements of the mechanism for the emergence of democracy are the institutions that ensure the organization and conduct of elections and referenda. Their importance is difficult to overestimate. Elective democracy is the main link in the process of reform of one-party power. It establishes the social, legal and political conditions for the transition from the administrative model of power to an open, self-governing, competitive and free-will-based alternative to citizens.

The Electoral Law and the Constitution

The Constitution of the Russian Federation remains the most important document for everything connected with the elections. It is thanks to her that there are free referendums and elections in the country. This document also introduced new terms into the lexicon. Thanks to the Constitution, the concept of "electoral corps" appeared in Russian.

This is a fundamental phenomenon. The structure of the electoral corps includes the right to vote (a combination of electoral duties and citizens' rights), legislation (legal sources of law). These tools are necessary for serious changes in the country. In addition, the struggle for this or that electoral system and the suffrage are one of the leading motives of state activity.

Thanks to the Constitution, an unpredictable process has begun and is still continuing at first glance. Society separates from the state and becomes a full-fledged subject of political relations, a real participant in the political process, the engine of the transformation and evolution of power institutions.

After the adoption of the Constitution, important changes took place. Now every political regime that has come to power should reckon with democratic electoral conditions, especially if it wants to preserve its own power. Any alternative to the constitutional order will lead to the disintegration of democratic institutions. Only according to the basic law of the country there is a legitimate reproduction of the state, rotation, transfer and regrouping of executive and legislative functions within different interest groups and forces. Thus, without the Constitution today, the notion of electoral law and the electoral system would be irrelevant. Their ratio can change only in ways that are allowed by the basic law of the country.

Democratic elections were the only way to get rid of the secrecy and other signs of a totalitarian society typical of the Soviet era. For the first time after a long silence in the 90s, people were able to openly declare their interests. Practice showed that they were very different from the reality that the Soviet government offered.

The future of suffrage

Although the very concept of electoral law and the electoral system in our country has not changed for more than twenty years, some features of the electoral process continue to change even now. Russian democracy is relatively young. It is still looking for an acceptable concept of the electoral system and suffrage. As well as the transition process, the political and legal reform in the Russian Federation is taking place in a situation of parallel and simultaneous search for a new structure of state power.

In legal construction, two aspects are combined: rational-bureaucratic and socio-political. At the same time, the system of public authority is being improved and the regime of its stability, continuity and continuity is maintained. In Russia, which is in a transitional stage of its development, many people still do not trust representative democracy. Part of society tries to live away from the state, not attending elections.

Overcoming this logic of mutual alienation and mistrust is necessary in order for Russian democracy to become even more effective. The concept of the electoral system and suffrage to many citizens is unclear, and, not participating in elections, they make them less legitimate, since the latter thus do not represent the whole range of opinions of society. This is a problem for any young democracy. Participation in elections is necessary for citizens for their political self-affirmation and awareness of the importance of their own decisions for the life of the country. Coming to the site, a citizen becomes a subject of state power.