The course prepared by one of the best Russian experts in constitutional law will focus on political, economic and cultural dimensions of the Russian constitutional system. Historical background of constitutional reforms and today developments will be discussed, basing on concrete examples of these developments. The course will both observe the specific of the Russian constitutional system in comparison to the other constitutional systems and penetrate into the key characteristics of the Russian constitution. Since adoption of the current Russian constitution of 1993 this constitutional system made a great evolution. The course will help to understand what ideas and concepts stand behind the Russian politics, both domestic and international, which principles lie in the basement of the legal framework for cultural, political and economic life of the Russian society. Foreigners and Russians see the Russian constitutional system in the «distorting mirror» of mass media; both of them need professional analysis of how the legal, governmental and economic systems are designed in Russia. The course will present this kind of analysis by a Russian scholar, familiar to contemporary development of constitutionalism in the world, who is able to present the view from inside Russia, but to position the Russian constitutional system in the a wide context of the world constitutionalism. On the finishing this course the students will: 1. make analysis of legislative and judicial acts, taken by Russian state authorities in the context of the Russian constitution, its main values and basic principles 2. to give expert assistance for interaction with the Russian government structures in a wide range of political and economic questions Know: 1. the specific of the Russian constitution, Russian legal, political and economic system 2. the history of forming and development of the contemporary constitutional system of Russia Have the capacity to: 1. better understand of political, economic and legal processes in Russia 2. make prognosis of the development of the Russian legislation and judicial practice, the reaction of the Russian state bodies to events in the world and to the decisions made by foreign states and international organizations
1.2. Soviet Ideology, Politics, Law and the Constitution
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Del curso dictado por Saint Petersburg State University
Constitutional Reforms in Russia
14 calificaciones
De la lección
Modul 1. Introduction
Conoce a los instructores
Sergei A. BelovAssociate Professor of Constitutional Law, Candidate of law (PhD)
Department of State and Administrative Law, Law Faculty
We will start talk about the reforms in Russia from the point of our system,
how it works in the Soviet time,
and what was reformed in the course of
the great radical changes of 1980s and 1990s in Russia.
The Soviet system of government and Soviet system of politics formed
after the great October Revolution of 1917, 100 years ago.
And it was the organization of
quite new and original system of politics and economics,
which differed from many of those preceders,
both in Russia and abroad.
This system was based on Marxism theory,
and this theory supposed that
the economic system was the basis for all social organization,
while political and legal system were a secondary part of the social organization,
and they followed the general basic principles reflected in the economic.
The system of Soviet state was not the same in
the beginning and in the end of the Soviet period of Russian history.
After the great revolution of 1917,
the constitution which was adopted in 1918,
reflected the idea of dictatorship of proletariat.
And these was the system which supposed the existence of classes, social classes,
and the new system established by Soviet state was
just the new political power given to our proletariat,
which was the class for the first time got
the political power and could protect its own interests by these means,
by these political means.
By the adoption of the third Russian constitution of 1936,
the Starling's constitution as we always say here,
the Russian constitutional system,
the Russian political system,
evolved during this time.
And during these years,
just more than one decade,
the classes in the Russian society were abolished.
At least, it was declared by the
leading and the only political party in the Soviet state,
the communist party of Soviet Union.
In the constitution of 1936,
the equal protection of all the people,
in spite of their classes,
all the political rights,
all these social rights were given to all the citizen,
to the Soviet citizens.
And this was the quite new system
comparing to what was established right after the revolution.
Later, after the World War II,
which is known in Russia as, great patriotic war,
the system also evolved,
but more in direction of
more consequent implementation of basic principles of the Soviet system.
And namely, the social justice,
the social redistribution of economic goods and economic values by the state to
protect all the people and to provide social fairness within the scale of the society.
By the end of 1970s,
this system was quite different,
both from what was established after the revolution and what existed before the war.
This system which started to be reformed in the course of Perestroika of 1985,
was the system which based on quite original,
very specific principles both in political and economic system,
still very different from western type democracies.
The ideology which was the background for this social order,
was the idea to create the most just society,
the most just in the world scale,
and to make the social economic and political system
to protect interests of all the people.
But the system was more or less counter or opposed to
the western system of economic and political organization of the society.
And this was approach which greatly influenced both
on Soviet Political system and on the today political system in Russia.
I mean that the opposition between
the Soviet and Capitalist system made the whole world in black and white picture.
So, the Capitalist system was seen as uncorrect while
the Soviet system was the only possible true just system.
This means that the system of the Soviet state
was the system where we could have only one political approach,
only one political party,
and where could not exist
any political pluralism or any kind of discussions about development,
and about the true and the right,
the correct way of development.
The political system, on one hand was sometimes
seen similar to many western democracies but on the other hand,
was quite different from them.
It was like western democracies,
if we see that in the Soviet state, there was elections,
there were the system of declaring the people's democracy,
the people's will as the basement for all the political decisions,
the protection of people's interest in the decisions of the government.
It was even the legal guarantees of human rights,
of citizens rights in the Soviet constitutions.
But on the other hand,
the organization of the government system was different because first,
there were no separation of powers.
It was just the separation of functions,
which mean those organs which made laws,
which made the new norms.
And those organs which apply these norms like courts were just,
or executive was just the organs who could not create
new norms and their functions in the whole government system were seen quite different.
But this was not a system of checks and balances.
It was not like autonomy branches of government
like it was in the US or in many Western European countries.
It was just the distribution of some functions,
but all the state authorities were subordinated to Soviets as
representative organs being on the top of the whole state government system.
And from this point of view,
they were on the top of very centralised.
In the Soviet Russian constitution,
it was the principle of democratic centralism.
On the top of this centralized system,
Soviets could require subordination from all others authorities, including the courts.
And this system was also different from the Western rule of law.
And instead of that,
it was a principle of zakonnost legality which
meant that there were no abstract,
basic, pure, legal principles,
but it was just a political will expressed in the legal acts passed,
adopted by the by the Soviets.
In economic sphere, the Soviet system was
based on the absence of any private property ownership,
and it was the plan economy without any private entrepreneurship,
and without any competition.
So, both in political and in economic system there were
no competition supposed by the Soviet system.
This lack of competition,
this lack of freedom,
and this lack of private initiative,
caused quite deep economic crisis in the Soviet Union in the beginning of 1980s.
And this economic crisis on one hand showed the weakness of the Soviet system,
and on the other hand,
initiated the great reforms started in1985.
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