Text Art. 1 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation in the current edition for 2020:
1. The Russian Federation - Russia is a democratic federative constitutional state with a republican form of government.
2. The names Russian Federation and Russia are equivalent.
Commentary on Art. 1 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation
1. This article is the most general view reinforces the generalized characteristics of the Russian state and is a vivid example of a norm-definition ( short definition, reflecting essential features subject) inherent in domestic constitutional law, especially the first chapter of the Basic Law. Let us consider in more detail each of the principles formulated in Article 1 of the Constitution of Russia.
Democratic state. As you know, democracy (from Gr. demos - people, kratos - power) is the power of the people, i.e. political regime, characterized primarily by the periodic turnover of bodies elected by the population public authority. The degree of development of democracy depends on the number of elected authorities and the number of citizens participating in elections. AT Russian Federation the elected bodies of power include the President of Russia, the lower house of the Federal Assembly - The State Duma, legislative (representative) bodies state power subjects of the Federation, most bodies local government. Elections are held periodically, on the basis of universal equal basically direct suffrage, the nomination of candidates for elective offices is carried out on an alternative basis (see and ). In elections, majoritarian and proportional electoral systems are used in various combinations. From these formal positions, the Russian Federation can be considered a democratic state.
At the same time, the refusal to elect the governors (heads) of the subjects of the Federation by the population, the introduction of a fully proportional electoral system and an increase in the threshold number of votes for passing through the lists of candidates for the election of deputies of the State Duma, the refusal to directly elect members of the upper house of Parliament by the population of the subjects of the Federation (see commentary to the second section of the Constitution) - evidence of a partial rejection of a number of advantages of a democratic regime.
In addition to these features, a democratic political regime is characterized by freedom of the press, the rejection of censorship, the priority of human rights over the rights of the state and its bodies. From a formal legal point of view, all these signs of democracy in Russia are constitutionally enshrined (see and), but in practice they are not always observed and have not been properly enshrined in current legislation.
federal state. As you know, all the states of the world are divided into federal states according to their political and territorial structure (from the Latin foederatio - union, association), i.e. complex in composition, including relatively independent public entities, called subjects of the federation (states, cantons, lands, etc.), and unitary (from lat. unitas - unity), i.e. simple in composition, divided into non-independent administrative-territorial units, subordinate single center. Federative states in the world are a minority, no more than 26. However, their number is growing, some states, such as Italy, Spain, are at the stage of transition from unitary to federal. The reason is obvious: due to decentralization and deconcentration of state power, federal states become more democratic.
At the same time, it should be noted that in world practice there is no clear set of factors that determine the type of political territorial arrangement one state or another. As a rule, this is a set of subjective, historically established factors and events. Russia is no exception in this series. Historically, the process of formation of unitary and federal states is different in time. Those European states in which the process of forming a centralized state ended in the 16th-18th centuries took shape as unitary states (France, Great Britain, Russia). And those countries where this process occurred at the turn of the 18th-20th centuries or underwent some external influences, such as the United States, Germany or Switzerland, have become federal states. The Russian Empire, due to a set of objective and subjective reasons, despite its vast territory, multinational composition and multi-confessionalism, was formed as a rigidly centralized state. However, the unsuccessful outcome of the First World War for Russia, three crushing social revolutions put it on the verge of collapse. The Bolsheviks found the only possible, from their point of view, way to preserve the integrity of the state through speculation on the national feelings of the peoples oppressed by tsarism, i.e. through an exaggerated interpretation of the principle of self-determination of nations.
As a result, in the ruins Russian Empire independent states were formed: the BSSR, the Ukrainian SSR, the ZSFSR, the Bukhara and Khorezm people's republics, Poland and Finland. And on the territory of central Russia, a state unique in its organization was formed - the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic * (6). The uniqueness of the original federal structure of Russia was that it was federalization "from above", carried out at the direction of the central government, through the so-called autonomization. As part of the RSFSR, six types of state-like formations were formed - autonomous republics, autonomous regions, national (later autonomous) districts, labor communes (for example, the German Labor Commune, transformed in 1923 into the ASSR of the Volga Germans), territories and regions. Of the entire list of entities, only autonomous republics could claim the status of subjects of the Federation, since they had the right to adopt their own Constitution and autonomous legislation. The rest of the country's territories were under administrative subordination to the center, i.e. in the position of administrative-territorial units inherent in unitary state. Nevertheless, the state as a whole was called federal. Such an asymmetry could exist only under conditions of rigid administrative, organizational and political centralization.
Therefore, when during the period of the so-called perestroika, a rapid transformation of the territorial structure of the country began: the republics were declared sovereign states within the Russian Federation, most of the autonomous regions, with the exception of the Jewish one, were also transformed into republics, Chukotka autonomous region seceded from the Magadan region, cities were formed federal significance, Moscow and St. Petersburg, the remaining nine autonomous okrugs, regions and krais demanded the equal status of subjects of the Federation - the so-called Federal Treaty was concluded (more precisely, three treaties; for details, see the commentary to the second section of the Constitution), according to which each of the groups of subjects Federations (sovereign republics; regions, territories, cities of federal significance; autonomous regions) received its own system of relations with the central government.
The differences in these ratios were minimal. Perhaps the most significant difference was the recognition by the central authorities of the republics as sovereign states within the Russian Federation. It was a forced action that prevented the possible collapse of the Russian Federation, which was outlined after the collapse of the USSR, which occurred in December 1991. However, the crisis federal relations has passed, and the Federal Treaty, according to the second section of the Constitution, formally continues to operate (in any case, neither side has denounced it) * (7). Therefore, the authors of the Constitution faced a difficult task. On the one hand, in accordance with the Declaration on state sovereignty On June 12, 1990, Russia was declared a sovereign state, and this norm, in accordance with global practice, should have been enshrined in the first article of the Constitution. On the other hand, declaring all subjects equal in rights among themselves and in relations with the central government (see) required unilateral refusal from the sovereignty of the republics within the Russian Federation. Then the authors of the Constitution took a compromise path of mutual "renunciation" of sovereignty: Russia - in the first article of the Constitution, and the republics - in the fifth. At the same time, of course, Russia was declared a sovereign state, but indirectly, by fixing its individual features (see.
1. Russian Federation - Russia is a democratic federal state of law with a republican form of government.
2. The names Russian Federation and Russia are equivalent.
Commentary on Article 1 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation
1. The hypertrophy of the state principle to the detriment of the public, the collective to the detriment of the individual, the abuse of power, characteristic of the past of domestic statehood, predetermined the place of the commented Article 1 of the CRF in constitutional system. The constitution does not fix the state in general, divorced from reality; it consolidates the Russian state, which has adopted modern standards of democracy, the rule of law and human rights, the purpose of which is social service. According to Art. 1 of the Constitution, Russia is a democratic legal federal state with a republican form of government. Thus, the Russian Federation, as a continuation and development of domestic statehood, is associated with a certain state form, and the Constitution includes the corresponding substantive characteristics in its concept.
In this constitutional formula, the following circumstances attract attention, in particular: The Constitution establishes that in the hierarchy of values a person, his rights and freedoms are highest value and, therefore, the main goal of state policy. Democratic renewal, causing a deep value reorientation of society, thereby returns to the problem of man its proper place not only in theory, but also in social practice. This constitutional norm fixes the main criterion of law-establishing and law enforcement state, its organs and officials; the idea of the legal coherence of the state, the limitation of its power, is expressed and consolidated constitutionally, since it is entrusted with legal obligations before a person whose rights and freedoms are obligatory for the legislator, executive and judiciary. Since the state does not grant, but only recognizes, observes and protects human rights and freedoms, the said constitutional formula expresses the idea of natural, inalienable and inalienable human rights that exist regardless of their state recognition, due to which constitutional rights and freedoms are not imposed by the state , are not bestowed by them, but are attributive, peculiar to the personality and follow from the dignity inherent in every person. This constitutional norm also implies the need to distinguish between human rights and the rights of a citizen: human rights are a general social category, they represent social opportunities and the needs that exist even before their state recognition, and the rights of a citizen are such human rights that are under the protection and protection of the state; Therefore, the fundamental rights of a citizen are legal form human rights included in a particular social system.
The unity and integrity of Russia are ensured by the unity of the system of state power, as well as the unity of the executive authorities of the Russian Federation and its subjects within their joint jurisdiction, unified system the judiciary, the prosecutor's office, etc. Important for ensuring the unity and integrity of the Russian state is the unity of citizenship and the constitutional status of citizens of the Russian Federation, which implies that every citizen of the Russian Federation has all the rights and freedoms on its territory and bears equal duties, provided for by the Constitution(part 2, article 6).
The principle of federalism. As mentioned earlier, according to the Constitution, the Russian Federation is a democratic legal federal state with a republican form of government (part 1 of the commented article 1 of the Constitution of Russia). This means that federalism is not only an element of the form of the state, but is also important for identifying the essence and nature of state power, institutions of statehood and legal system. At the same time, two levels interact in Russia federal system and within its framework of public authority - the Federation as a whole, represented by federal authorities state power (by the President, the Federal Assembly, the Government, etc.), and the subjects of the Russian Federation, represented by the state authorities of these subjects, possessing, within the limits of their jurisdiction, the fullness of state power.
The principle of the sovereignty of the Russian Federation, acting in state-legal and international legal relations as the sole bearer of supreme power. The sovereignty of Russia is based on the sovereignty of its multinational people, whose will is the source of all public authority (state, local self-government).
The sovereignty of the Russian Federation, as noted, is characterized by its supremacy on its territory and independence in external relations. This, however, does not prevent the state from voluntarily assuming obligations arising from membership in interstate organizations or from international treaties of the Russian Federation.
The principle of a single and equal standard for the Russian Federation and all its subjects of the standard of human and civil rights and freedoms. At the same time, a. . It follows that the subjects of the Russian Federation are not entitled to narrow the constitutional status of the individual, established by the Basic Law. And in accordance with .
The principle of delimitation of subjects of jurisdiction and powers between state authorities of the Russian Federation and state authorities of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation. The Constitution of the Russian Federation, the Federal Treaty and other agreements on the delimitation of subjects of jurisdiction and powers distinguish: 1) subjects of jurisdiction and powers of the Russian Federation; 2) subjects of joint jurisdiction and powers of the Russian Federation and its subjects; 3) the subjects of jurisdiction and powers of the subjects of the Russian Federation. At the same time, the Constitution determines the jurisdiction of the Russian Federation and the joint jurisdiction of the Russian Federation and its subjects. Beyond their borders, the subjects of the Russian Federation have the fullness of state power and exercise it independently.
The principle of loyalty to the Federation in relation to its subjects and subjects of the Russian Federation in relation to the Federation, or the principle of friendly relations between them. Legal content This principle consists in observing the parameters of the powers assigned to the Federation and its subjects, especially in the field of competing competence, non-interference in the limits of jurisdiction and powers of each other.
The principle of loyalty in federal relations also presupposes a high level of state consciousness, readiness to defend the federal system and its own prerogatives, rejection of regional egoism and readiness for agreed decisions in case of disputes between the Federation and its subjects or between subjects of the Russian Federation. But even in this case, the boundaries of such loyalty are determined by the mutual constitutional obligations of the participants in federal relations, imposed on them by the Constitution, and the requirement of their conscientious fulfillment.
The Constitution, following the Federal Treaty, establishes three types of subjects in the structure of the Federation: national-state (republics within the Russian Federation); administrative-territorial (territories, regions, cities of Moscow and St. Petersburg); national-territorial (autonomous region and autonomous regions). Thus, the current Constitution, while retaining the basic scheme of the former type of federalism, significantly supplemented it with new elements, endowed administrative-territorial units of the highest level (krai, region), as well as cities of federal significance with the qualities of subjects of the Federation, guaranteed all subjects of real independence in the spheres of state granted to them. and public life.
The uniqueness of Russian federalism lies in the fact that it is based on both national and territorial principles, which is a reflection of the multi-ethnic nature of the national composition of Russia, the identity of its historical development, features of the construction of the Russian statehood, etc. In this it differs significantly from most other federations.
At the same time, it should be borne in mind that in relation to many small peoples, as before, the territorial, or supra-ethnic, model of federalism is preserved. These peoples do not have ethno-national statehood and, due to their small number, need special state protection. Concerning .
At the present stage of development of Russian federalism, the general tendency to equalize the status of subjects of the Federation with a fairly clearly defined range of their sovereign rights prevails. To the Constitutional Conference of 1993, with which the representatives of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation who participated in it agreed: "In relations with federal government bodies, all constituent entities of the Russian Federation are equal among themselves." The main thing now is the problem of guaranteeing the equality of the subjects of the Russian Federation, formed on national and territorial grounds, which involves providing them with equal legal opportunities to exercise all political, socio-economic and other rights of peoples and each individual. And this largely depends not only on the subjects of the Russian Federation themselves, but also, to no lesser extent, on the organization of power in a single federal state, the nature of budgetary relations, tax policy, etc. In the case of checking the constitutionality of paragraph 1 of Article 1 and paragraph 4 of Article 3 of the Law of the Russian Federation of October 18, 1991 "On Road Funds in the Russian Federation" * (2), the equality of the subjects of the Russian Federation among themselves in relations with federal government bodies means, in in particular, the uniformity of the constitutional approach to the distribution of jurisdiction and powers between the Russian Federation and its subjects requires the establishment by the federal legislator common rules relations between federal government bodies and all subjects of the Russian Federation.
The Russian state in geopolitical, economic and other respects is not a heterogeneous association of heterogeneous members, but something integral, capable in its potential to ensure the diversity and originality of the subjects of the Federation while maintaining their close state unity based on their natural mutual attraction. And legal forms ensuring such unity of the subjects of the Russian Federation, organized in accordance with these different models, are diverse and give the subjects the opportunity to choose the most appropriate ways of interaction for them.
Thus, the federal structure of Russia serves, on the one hand, to preserve the diversity of different regions with the unconditional nature of federal unity, on the other hand, such a device acts as a way of rationally distributing competence and authority not only horizontally, but also vertically. Legislative, executive and judicial powers are divided between the Federation and its subjects, and this division itself must be carried out in such a way that the exercise of its powers by one part state mechanism The Federation demanded the revitalization of the activities of the other part, which in turn could contribute to a closer unity of all subjects of the Russian Federation, the development of their interconnections and interdependence.
At the same time, the federal Constitution established that the political decentralization envisaged by it cannot be built on the principles of an abstract mathematical equality of subjects, but must be correlated with the specific situation of the decentralized region, its economic potential, the development of industry and Agriculture, population size, presence of cultural centers, etc. The Federal Constitution provides for such a possibility through the conclusion of agreements between federal bodies and authorities of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation.
In a federal state, asymmetry in the legislation and activities of the authorities of the subjects of the federation is not ruled out. Its legal basis is . Russian federalism allows asymmetry, but not in the constitutional status of the subjects of the Federation, but in the terms of reference and jurisdiction, which are determined by the federal Constitution and the Federal and other treaties concluded on its basis (Article 11 of the Constitution).
No matter how great the asymmetry and the framework of independence of the subjects of the Federation, the latter are included in the system of nation-wide relations united by the federal Constitution. Therefore, the effective functioning of this system is unthinkable without ensuring the supremacy federal constitution and federal laws. In other words, the domestic model of federalism is based on the recognition that given form state structure there is a system in which all its constituent parts and the corresponding links in the hierarchy of power are interconnected by generally binding norms of the federal Constitution and mutual responsibility. The delimitation of powers and subjects of jurisdiction of federal bodies and bodies of constituent entities of the Russian Federation, enshrined in it, should form the basis of the constitutions and charters of the latter. In this regard, there is an acute problem of constant renewal of a single constitutional space in our country, ensuring the compliance of constituent acts (constitutions, charters) of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation with the federal Constitution.
In this way, Russian federalism in their modern forms was established, formed and developed on the basis of the Constitution. "Moreover, - as the President of the Russian Federation D.A. Medvedev noted in his Address to the Federal Assembly of November 5, 2008, - a special role in its formation was played by Constitutional Court RF. His decisions struck a balance between different interests levels of power - sometimes sharply conflicting. This applies to both disputes between federal and regional bodies authorities among themselves, and disputes about various ways of organizing local self-government.
1.4. According to part 1 of the commented article, the Russian Federation is a republic, which means the constitutional consolidation of the republican principle. An adequate interpretation of the principle of a republican state requires taking into account that the modern meaning of this concept differs from the content that was originally invested in it - "common cause" (respublica); public power in the republic, unlike the monarchy, came from the political community, which was the people, and was obliged to serve the "common good" (salus publica). Such a vision is now closer to the characteristics of a democratic constitutional state.
The consolidation of the republican principle in the Constitution means the impossibility of legal refusal of the state in the person of its highest bodies of state power - the President, parliament, government, the highest bodies of the judiciary - from the republican form of government.
The republican form of government also applies to all subjects of the Russian Federation by virtue of the recognition of their constituent parts of a single Russian state, although both in the federal Constitution and in the constituent acts of the subjects of the Russian Federation, the republican principle is clearly expressed only in the constitutions of those subjects that. At the same time, the term "republic" is present in the names of all these entities and carries a certain legal meaning. However, the concept of "republic" is not equivalent to the concept of "state", which appeared in the text of the Constitution under the influence of the leaders of a number of republics within the Russian Federation that took part in the 1993 Constitutional Conference, linking the latter term with greater independence and expressing claims to sovereignty, unlike other subjects. RF.
Part 1 of the commented article emphasizes the relationship of the republican principle of organizing state power in the Russian Federation with the principles of democracy, the rule of law and federalism. The Russian Federation is a democratic republic founded and operating on the principles of legal statehood and federalism. This has an impact on the composition of the highest bodies of state power, the procedure for their formation, organization, functioning and the nature of interaction between themselves and with the population.
The main feature of the modern democratic republican form of government in Russia is the election and replacement of the head of state by the people, as well as the participation of the people themselves directly or in indirect forms established in accordance with their will in the exercise of public power. The source of power is not the head of state, parliament or government, it is the multinational people of Russia, delegating the right to power to state bodies, but at the same time retaining control over them. The organs of the state are not constituent, but established power, which can act without the risk of losing its legitimacy only within the limits of the powers established by the people in the Constitution and laws adopted in accordance with it.
In political theory and state-legal practice, two types of republics are usually distinguished - presidential and parliamentary, the main difference between which lies in the features of the government's responsibility. These features are due to the prevailing political system and the hierarchy of public authorities enshrined in the constitution. The parliamentary republic is characterized by the dominant position of the body popular representation- Parliament, which plays a decisive role in the formation of the government and to which the latter is responsible in the forms established in the constitution. On the contrary, in a presidential republic, the head of state simultaneously heads and executive power, concentrates in his hands the powers of the head of government. This determines the wide discretion of the president in the formation of the government, the choice of ministers, their appointment or removal from office. At the same time, in order to curb possible authoritarian tendencies in such a republic, the head of state does not have the right to legally dissolve parliament, which provides mutual checks and balances.
The Russian Federation, at first glance, following a number of other states (Austria, Portugal, France, etc.), has chosen a mixed form of government that combines the features of presidential and parliamentary republics. The presidential-parliamentary ("semi-presidential") republican form of government, enshrined in the Constitution, is characterized by the following features: the President is elected by universal suffrage and, therefore, the source of his powers is not in the will of parliament, as in a parliamentary republic, but in the will of the people. In reality, however, the peculiarities of the political development of the Russian Federation and the confrontation between various political forces, which resulted in the tragic events of September-October 1993, determined the scope and nature of the powers of the head of state, which make it possible to qualify the form of government in Russia as a "super-presidential" republic, in which the President has wide discretionary powers and can act at its own discretion, independently of the government and in full control of it; along with the President are the Chairman of the Government and the ministers who make up the Government, which bears limited responsibility to Parliament, which are usually seen as features of a parliamentary republic.
Due to the lack of formal certainty of the republican principle, as well as other constitutional norms-principles and their interpenetration, it is extremely difficult to formalize the legal obligations arising from it for the state. Nevertheless, at least the following fundamental requirements for the organization of public power in Russia follow from the constitutional consolidation of the republican form of government: the principle of the majority and the principle of the legality of the activities of state bodies and their officials. The principle of the majority means that the state is governed by the majority, which delegates to state bodies and agents of the state the right to exercise state power through democratic free elections. The principle of legality requires that government bodies and their officials acted on the basis of the Constitution and laws, as well as other legal acts based on them, and not contrary to them, even if another solution seems more rational.
2. Part 2 of the commented article establishes that the names Russian Federation and Russia are equivalent. Thus, these names act as synonyms for the designation of the Russian state. They were established by the Law of the RSFSR of December 25, 1991 N 2094-1 "On changing the name of the state Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic". This meant the rejection of the Soviet type of state organization and the ideologeme of socialism in its name, as well as the restoration of historical continuity in the development of domestic statehood.
Moreover, if the name "Russian Federation", only in the preamble and used 46 times, reflects the federal nature of the state, then the word "Russia" in specified parts The Constitution is used four times, and depending on the context - to refer to different concepts. In particular, in the preamble the word "Russia" acts as synonyms for the words "country", "Motherland", "Fatherland", which are not identical in meaning to the concept of the Russian state, but in their constitutional interpretation are essential for determining the limits constitutional regulation and establishing mutual rights and obligations of subjects of constitutional legal relations (see, for example,
1. The Russian Federation - Russia is a democratic federal legal state with a republican form of government.
2. The names Russian Federation and Russia are equivalent.
Article 2
Man, his rights and freedoms are the highest value. Recognition, observance and protection of the rights and freedoms of man and citizen is the duty of the state.
Article 3
1. The bearer of sovereignty and the only source of power in the Russian Federation is its multinational people.
2. The people exercise their power directly, as well as through state authorities and local self-government bodies.
3. The highest direct expression of the power of the people is the referendum and free elections.
4. No one can appropriate power in the Russian Federation. Seizure of power or appropriation powers of authority prosecuted under federal law.
Article 4
1. The sovereignty of the Russian Federation extends to its entire territory.
2. The Constitution of the Russian Federation and federal laws shall have supremacy throughout the entire territory of the Russian Federation.
3. The Russian Federation ensures the integrity and inviolability of its territory.
Article 5
1. The Russian Federation consists of republics, krais, oblasts, cities of federal significance, an autonomous oblast, and autonomous okrugs — equal subjects of the Russian Federation.
2. The republic (state) has its own constitution and legislation. A krai, oblast, federal city, autonomous oblast, autonomous okrug has its own charter and legislation.
3. federal structure of the Russian Federation is based on its state integrity, the unity of the system of state power, the delimitation of jurisdiction and powers between state authorities of the Russian Federation and state authorities of the subjects of the Russian Federation, equality and self-determination of peoples in the Russian Federation.
4. In relations with federal government bodies, all subjects of the Russian Federation are equal among themselves.
Article 6
1. Citizenship of the Russian Federation is acquired and terminated in accordance with federal law, is uniform and equal irrespective of the bases of acquisition.
2. Every citizen of the Russian Federation has all the rights and freedoms on its territory and bears equal obligations stipulated by the Constitution of the Russian Federation.
3. A citizen of the Russian Federation cannot be deprived of his citizenship or the right to change it.
Article 7
1. The Russian Federation is a social state whose policy is aimed at creating conditions that ensure a decent life and free development of a person.
2. In the Russian Federation, the labor and health of people are protected, a guaranteed minimum wage is established, and governmental support families, motherhood, fatherhood and childhood, disabled and elderly citizens, a system of social services is being developed, state pensions, benefits and other guarantees of social protection are being established.
Article 8
1. The Russian Federation guarantees the unity of the economic space, free movement of goods, services and financial resources, support for competition, and freedom of economic activity.
2. In the Russian Federation, private, state, municipal and other forms of ownership are recognized and protected in the same way.
Article 9
1. Earth and others Natural resources are used and protected in the Russian Federation as the basis for the life and activities of the peoples living in the respective territory.
2. Land and other natural resources may be in private, state, municipal and other forms of ownership.
Article 10
State power in the Russian Federation is exercised on the basis of division into legislative, executive and judicial. Legislative, executive and judicial authorities are independent.
Article 11
1. State power in the Russian Federation is exercised by the President of the Russian Federation, Federal Assembly(Federation Council and State Duma), Government of the Russian Federation, courts of the Russian Federation.
2. State power in the constituent entities of the Russian Federation is exercised by the bodies of state power formed by them.
3. The delimitation of the subjects of jurisdiction and powers between the state authorities of the Russian Federation and the state authorities of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation is carried out by this Constitution, the Federal and other agreements on the delimitation of subjects of jurisdiction and powers.
Article 12
The Russian Federation recognizes and guarantees local self-government. Local self-government within its powers independently. Local self-government bodies are not included in the system of state authorities.
Article 13
1. The Russian Federation recognizes ideological diversity.
2. No ideology can be established as a state or mandatory.
3. The Russian Federation recognizes political diversity and a multi-party system.
4. Public associations are equal before the law.
5. It is prohibited to create and operate public associations whose goals or actions are aimed at forcibly changing the foundations of the constitutional order and violating the integrity of the Russian Federation, undermining the security of the state, creating armed formations, inciting social, racial, national and religious hatred.
Article 14
1. The Russian Federation is a secular state. No religion can be established as a state or obligatory one.
2. Religious associations separated from the state and equal before the law.
Article 15
1. The Constitution of the Russian Federation has the highest legal force, direct effect and is applied throughout the territory of the Russian Federation. Laws and others legal acts adopted in the Russian Federation must not contradict the Constitution of the Russian Federation.
2. State authorities, local self-government bodies, officials, citizens and their associations are obliged to comply with the Constitution of the Russian Federation and laws.
3. Laws are subject official publication. Unpublished laws do not apply. Any normative legal acts affecting the rights, freedoms and duties of a person and a citizen cannot be applied if they are not officially published for general information.
4. Generally recognized principles and norms international law and international treaties of the Russian Federation are an integral part of its legal system. If a international treaty The Russian Federation has other rules than statutory, then the rules of the international treaty apply.
Article 16
1. The provisions of this chapter of the Constitution constitute the foundations of the constitutional system of the Russian Federation and cannot be changed except in the manner prescribed by this Constitution.
2. No other provisions of this Constitution may contradict the foundations of the constitutional system of the Russian Federation.
Rights and freedoms of man and citizen
The rights and freedom of man and citizen are the most important institution of modern constitutional law. In the second half of the XX century. came to the fore both in the sphere of domestic and international law, is one of the most significant results legal development humanity.
Power is the ability of some subjects public relations dictate their will and lead other subjects of public relations.
The court is a public authority belonging to the judicial branch of government and administering justice in the form of consideration and resolution of court cases.
The law is legal act accepted representative body state power on the most significant and topical issues public life.
Elections are the process of choosing the highest officials by citizens of the Russian Federation by holding a popular open vote.
State
The state is a special form of organization political power. The state as a special form of organization of political power is characterized by the presence of the following features: the presence of public authorities (i.e., institutions of power that are outside of society, isolated from it); the presence of governing bodies and maintaining law and order within the state; the presence of an organized tax system necessary to maintain the functioning of the state and state institutions, as well as the solution of other social issues; the presence of a separate territory and state borders that separate one state from another; the presence of an independent legal system, while, according to the majority of jurisprudence: the state cannot exist without law; monopoly on violence, only the state has the right to use violence; the presence of sovereignty, i.e. independence in internal and external affairs.
Republic
A republic is a form of government in which state bodies are elected by the citizens of the country only for a certain period limited by law. Most feature for the republican form of government is the election of the head of state, in which a politician is vested with powers as a result of democratic elections, and not through the transfer of power. There are three types of republics: presidential, parliamentary, mixed.
Federation
The federation is a special form of state-territorial structure, which is a complex state, consisting of many parts with a wide range of powers in the field - subjects of the federation. The subjects of the federation enjoy broad political and economic independence. The Russian Federation is an asymmetric federation, which is characterized by different constitutional status for its subjects.
The latest version of Article 1 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation reads:
1. Russian Federation - Russia is a democratic federal state of law with a republican form of government.
2. The names Russian Federation and Russia are equivalent.
Commentary on Art. 1 CRF
1. Article 1 is of paramount importance, because it defines the Russian Federation, listing a number of its most important features, specified in further articles of this chapter and throughout the Constitution.
RF is a democratic state. This is evident from the political and other rights of citizens, which are mentioned in and, which are set out in many articles of subsequent chapters, from the list, etc. The democracy of the state is expressed in the fact that all its structure and activities must comply with the will of the people, and state power decisions are made by the majority of the people (or their representatives) with respect for the will of the minority and the rights of man and citizen. The opinion expressed in the discussion about the concept of "sovereign democracy" about it as the absolute power of the majority, without indicating that for it the rights of the minority and each person should remain inviolable, is unacceptable: in a democratic system, as a result of subsequent elections, the majority may become a minority, and the former minority majority.
Russia is a federal state, consisting of its subjects, i.e. members of this unified state. This is then concretized in the provisions on the sovereignty of the Russian Federation, the supremacy of its Constitution and laws throughout Russia, and so on. (), on the state authorities of the Russian Federation and its constituent entities, on the delimitation of jurisdiction and powers between federal authorities and authorities of the constituent entities of the Federation (), in a number of other chapters of the Constitution (, etc.).
The Russian Federation is a legal state. This characterization, which for a long time was considered an unacceptable bourgeois invention for deceiving the working people under capitalism, is now accepted among us. On the other hand, the identification of law with the law was rejected, which opened the way to the substitution of the law, which the legislator is obliged to observe, by the law, which legislators often adopt arbitrarily. The rule of law is not just a state, even observing laws. This is a society and a state that recognizes law as a historically developing in the public consciousness, an expanding measure of freedom and justice, which is expressed in the generally recognized principles and norms of international law, in the Constitution corresponding to them, in laws based on it, and on their basis - in by-laws and the practice of realizing human rights and freedoms, the duties of the state, the principles of democracy, market economy, etc. The idea of the rule of law in the life of society and the state is much broader in scope than the idea of the state observing its laws; a legal state that serves the just interests of man and society and is not only one of the subjects, but also the most important object legal regulation, - this is modern stage millennial search for a super-source for legal rule-making. This source was seen either in the divine will, or in the "spirit" of the people, or in the absolute power of the monarch or the ruling class, or in the economic basis, and so on. Marx considered the state not a creator of norms, but only a translator of the objective needs of society into the language of law.
The idea of the rule of law is expressed in the Constitution of the Russian Federation in the supremacy of the Constitution, which recognizes the universally recognized principles and norms of international law and international treaties of the Russian Federation as an integral part of its legal system, and the norms established by its international treaty are more legal force than those established by law (, etc.); in the fact that the state does not create, does not grant people their rights, which are inalienable and belong to them not from the state, but from birth (part 2 of article 17); in that it is. . The state, becoming legal, turns from an apparatus of ruling over society into a social service for a person and society, expressing their will and acting under their legal control.
The republican form of government is characterized by the absence of a monarch - usually a hereditary head of state - and the presence of power in bodies periodically re-elected by the people. The historical experience of Russia has led to the fact that in our country the monarchy is often understood as autocracy, and the "republic" for a long time had the character of a totalitarian or authoritarian dictatorship of a permanent party "leader", in many respects similar to the regimes in a number of "socialist" countries, military dictatorships in the republics of Latin America. America, clerical dictatorships of high priests in a number of states, etc. On the other hand, with the departure of many such regimes and forms of government, even in most modern democratic constitutional monarchies, the type of "republican monarchy", as M. Duverger (France) called it, is increasingly developing. With it, the rights of man and citizen, suffrage, social system, parliamentarism, separation of powers, etc. completely or almost completely the same as that of the republics, and the monarch retains only formal and ritual functions, but no real power.
Russia was first declared a republic on September 1, 1917 by the Provisional Government, which did not have the necessary powers for this, and on October 25, 1917 it was again proclaimed a republic of Soviets, but, in the fair opinion of M.V. Baglai, the legitimacy of this act, as well as other establishments of the October Revolution, is "more than doubtful" (see: Baglai M.V. Constitutional law Russian Federation. M., 2001. S. 124). Quite legally, Russia was proclaimed a republic by the democratically elected Constituent Assembly on the very first day of its work, but after that it was dispersed by the Bolsheviks. The republic in Russia was finally established by all-Russian referenda in 1990 and 1993.
Strengthening a truly republican form of government with its strict legality, periodic elections and legal rotation of the composition of government bodies, real public control for their activities, with overcoming bureaucracy, corruption, arbitrariness of officials is necessary in Russia, as the President of the Russian Federation V.V. Putin.
Some of the most important characteristics of the Russian Federation, which, like those already mentioned, have yet to be fully justified in practice, did not "fall" into the commented Article 1 of the CRF. First of all, this is the definition of the Russian Federation as a social state: it is given in. (See comments to her). Many democracies are multilaterally characterized not in various articles, but in their unified main constitutional definitions.
Definitions of Russia as a social and secular state were not included in the text of Art. 1 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, since during the preparation of its draft, many politicians and scientists completely unreasonably saw in the term "welfare state" the remnant of communist ideology, and not a necessary feature of a modern neoliberal and democratic state. The term "secular state" was probably not considered important enough to be included in Art. 1. But a single consolidated constitutional characteristic of Russia, of course, covers all of its properties.
In connection with the above, it should be noted that if the fundamental foundations of the constitutional order of Russia, named in Art. 1 are concretized in a number of subsequent articles that talk about the content of these foundations, then in Art. 7 and 14 not only briefly name these foundations of the constitutional system, but also give their concretization - of course, at the most general level necessary for their establishment.
However, the powerful potential of constitutional norms, which characterizes the Russian Federation as a democratic, legal, social, etc. state, largely unused. These provisions are not fully implemented and are often flagrantly violated, retaining a largely formal character. They will become more and more effective as society achieves significant success in its socio-economic, cultural and political development, in overcoming existing shortcomings and in the full implementation of all constitutional human and civil rights in Russia (see: Kozlova E.I., Kutafin O.E. Constitutional Law of Russia, Moscow: Yurist, 2004, pp. 140, 144, 152-153, 189, etc.).
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