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
4.1 Social Perception and Principles of the Russian Politics
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Modul 4. Political System of Russia
講師
Sergei A. Belov
Associate Professor of Constitutional Law, Candidate of law (PhD)
[MUSIC]
When we talk about the Russian political system,
we can start with the general principles, which are the specific of this system.
And I will mention as the main principle, quite a big deal of centralization.
Centralization and subordination within the whole system of government, and
within the whole political system of the country, of the state.
And in the Russian Federation, we see that this centralization
was a characteristic of the Soviet system and
it was inherited by the current Russian political system.
And sometimes, it was just a tradition.
Sometimes it is quite a specific development of
the political relations in the Russian politics.
When we take the Constitution, and
when we analyze the text of the Constitution, we would see that
there are principles of separation of powers.
The principle of federal state, federal structure of the state.
And they could suppose that the branches of government and
the subjects to federation are independent from the central government.
And within the separation of powers,
branches are also independent from each other.
But when we address to practice,
since the adoption of the Constitution,
since 1993, since 1994, we saw that
this separation of powers was a matter of debate both
in scholar literature and in political practice.
Because some of scholars,
some of politicians who argued that the Constitution should be read literally.
They insisted that the branches of government should be separated and
should act independently from each other.
But in practice, of course, this could be only a political balance.
A balance between those forces which dominate
in the executive or in the legislative.
And it is quite hard to make the institutional balancing
without the substantial political balancing.
In the Russian literature, in the Russian legal scholarship,
we can find a lot of opinions which prevail, actually, in this literature.
That the separation of powers means only a separation of functions.
And this separation does not mean that the branches of government
should fight with each other, but rather they should do the same work.
Maybe a separation of their function could play some role in their
checks and balances, in their balancing between each other.
This reading of separation of powers principle is very specific for
the Russian constitutional system.
And today, we see that within this interpretation of separation of powers,
we see rather unity than the separation itself.
Of course, the idea of separation of functions is the idea which
was obviously taken from the Soviet constitutional system.
And even today, it is quite seen in the opinions and
in political practice.
Though I would say, no politician would insist
that this is a part of Soviet trodement,
which is still alive in the contemporary Russian political system.
When we talk about the branches of government,
we will need to pay some attention to the position of the president.
I will talk about this in more detailed manner,
but in just brief characteristic of the whole system.
I would say that the position of the president in the system of
separation of powers is somehow
not literally taken from the text of the Constitution.
And the president is on its position in the system of government organs,
the president is beyond the branches of government.
The president is not a part of the executive.
And the president is somehow a kind of judge,
an arbitor over the branches of government and
the organ which provides the unity of the whole system.
So the unity definitely prevails over the separation.
And, of course, this could be evaluated differently.
Many Western scholars would say that this is the breach
of one of the main principles of democratic state.
And the unity means that the power is not limited.
Actually, the branches of government do not limit each other,
and this is a lack of democratic organization.
But in the political system of the Russian Federation,
it is rather evaluated as the condition of effectiveness of the whole state.
And many people in Russia believe that the state
will be more effective if the branches of government will not
pay too much attention to the struggle between these branches.
But rather to cooperate in favor of public interests,
in favor of solution of current social problems.
And this is the approach which is quite deep in the social mentality and
quite innocuous, specific of the Russian political system.
This unity and this prevail of unity in favor of a united system,
but not into the separation, is also very important for
the political rhetoric which appeared after
2014 when the international policy of
the Russian state became quite opposing to
the position of many Western democracies.
And the Russian Federation find itself
in some situation, as a position and
sometimes even struggling against the whole
world of Western Europe and North America.
And here we see that internal policy was also
much influenced by this international situation.
And finally, the unity of the state became very important as a kind of mobilization
in front of this quite alien position of
the developed states, of the European and
American most powerful democratic states.
And we see that in the Russian politics,
the rhetoric which appealed to the traditional values,
to the traditional culture, to the national interests of
Russia was the most dominating feature.
Which, of course, influenced on the political system, as well.
Those ideas which were even reflected in the Constitution
as the values put under the constitutional text,
under the constitutional system, and
the system of government, appeared to be not so
up-to-date in modern Russia.
Because it was like an ideology of those who are in conflict with our country.
And that is why we should find the other
approaches to social organization, to the main principles.
And to find that our own approach to the most important social institutions.
I mentioned about this,
talking about constitutional identity of the Russian Federation.
And I repeat this here, noting that this approach was very important for
both policy in making new legislation, and
in the constructing the whole system of government.
So in the orthodox approach, which more or
less prevailed in this system, the public interests,
the interests of the whole society,
were much more important than those of certain individuals.
And this situation make the attitude to the political organization.
The opposition which, of course, exists in the Russian politics,
does not play that role which it should play according to
the principles of democratic society, of democratic state.
The opposition plays the role of some
opposing in very narrow space of
political debates on sensitive political questions.
But actually, the system of government is somehow apart from these discussions.
And the decisions which are taken by the state authorities are quite
rarely influenced by the position of
some opposition politicians or opposition political parties.
They are rather influenced by public opinion, which is sometimes expressed
directly by the people, sometimes by mass media.
But very rarely by those political
parties which are instituted like in Western democracies.
So I wouldn't say that the government ignores the public opinion in Russia.
But I would say that the political opposition does not
play the role of real opposition in the political system.
So we could say that this system of
opposing opinions, it is quite apart from making real decisions.
And this system, of course, influences the system of
recruiting of new people into the system of government.
The political parties maybe, but
the main political party which is
the government party as we see here [FOREIGN].
They quite really make the function,
the recruiting of new politicians to the political system.
And the recruiting itself is made through rather personal contacts.
And sometimes through more formalized institutions, but not so much.
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