THE 2020 AMENDMENTS to the CONSTITUTION of the RUSSIAN FEDERATION and the IDEOLOGY of a SOVEREIGN DEMOCRATIC and WELFARE STATE Ivan Vasilievich Ivanov1
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V. 01 - Nº 01 - Ano 2020 – Special Edition 774 THE 2020 AMENDMENTS TO THE CONSTITUTION OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION AND THE IDEOLOGY OF A SOVEREIGN DEMOCRATIC AND WELFARE STATE Ivan Vasilievich Ivanov1 Abstract: The article examines the state sovereignty were largely beyond constitutional and legal content of the them. A change in the current situation is 2020 amendments to the Constitution of possible through the harmonization and the Russian Federation. The study aims succession of Russia and the Soviet state, to substantiate the existence of a with the adoption of the social values of coincidence of public opinion and public the USSR in modern Russia. The demand in Russia with the amendments conclusions of the article boil down to a to the Constitution of the Russian positive assessment of the amendments Federation, as well as to analyze the to the Constitution of the Russian impact of these amendments on Federation, which, according to the changing the citizens' constitutional author, will lead to the formation of the rights. The results of the study are the ideology of a real sovereign democratic assessment of the impact of amendments and welfare state in Russia. Besides that, to the Constitution of the Russian the author notes in the conclusions that Federation on a possible change in socio- the establishment of Russia as a political life in Russia, strengthening democratic state, with the recognition of guarantees, and increasing the scope of a market economy, separation of powers, citizens' social rights. The article defines and the rule of law, is impossible without the peculiarity of the constitutional guaranteeing the social rights of all system of Russia, which was the result of Russian citizens. the formation of a new political and public life after 1991, and reflects liberal Keywords: amendments, Constitution political and legal values, stating that the of Russia; democracy; sovereignty; citizens' social rights and the ideas of social rights Russian State University of Tourism and Service, Glavnaya Street, 99, Cherkizovo, 141221, Moscow 1 Region, Russia. E-mail: [email protected] V. 01 - Nº 01 - Ano 2020 – Special Edition 775 Federal Assembly of the RF (hereinafter Introduction referred to as the State Duma). On March The problems of the study of the 14, 2020, the bill was signed by the 2020 amendments to the Constitution of President of the RF and published (Bill the Russian Federation (RF) is No. 885214-7, n.d). associated with the need to determine The aim of the study is the whether there is a real demand from constitutional and legal analysis of the society to change the organization of the 2020 amendments to the Constitution of highest bodies of state power, as well as Russia, determination of their impact on to identify the need of Russian citizens to changes in the socio-political life of increase the volume of their socio- society and constitutional values, as well economic rights. as stating whether there was a real public Besides, the problematic of the demand for such amendments. study is connected with the analysis of The study of the 2020 the possibility of implementing amendments to the Constitution of the amendments to the Constitution of RF is a fairly new subject in the Russia in practice and not turning them constitutional law of Russia and is into constitutional declarative and represented by a small number of fictitious norms. research works, which are given below. These issues are determined by The head of the department of the constitutional reform in Russia, the constitutional and municipal law S.A. most ambitious reform since the collapse Avakyan (2020), who, by the order of the of the USSR. President of the RF of January 15, 2020, The reform was initiated by the was also included in the task group on President of Russia. In January 2020, the the development of amendments to the President of the RF V.V. Putin Constitution of the RF. introduced bill No. 885214-7 "On His proposals are in many ways improving the regulation of certain similar to bill No. 885214-7. issues of the organization and Another Russian researcher functioning of public authorities" S.N. Baburin pays special attention to (hereinafter referred to as bill No. social and spiritual norms aimed at 885214-7) to the State Duma of the educating a patriotic citizen in decent V. 01 - Nº 01 - Ano 2020 – Special Edition 776 material conditions in the 2020 analytical method, the empirical method, amendments to the Russian Constitution the method of comparative (Baburin, 2020). jurisprudence, the historical method, and It is hypothetically possible to the formal-legal method. assume that the 2020 amendments to the The analytical method is used to Constitution of Russia will determine the compare constitutional norms, as well as change in constitutional values in Russia to analyze the amendments made to and will affect the social and political life them, aimed at a logical analysis of the of the multinational people of Russia. text of the Constitution of the RF. We believe that the The empirical method is based constitutional and legal assessment of on data from sociology and public the amendments to the Constitution of opinion studies. Law sociology which the RF is relevant and significant for the was justified in the works of such jurists development of Russian statehood and as G. Jellinek (2004) and O. Ehrlich the implementation of the constitutional (2011) shows that the legislative process status of an individual. and lawmaking as a whole should be Thus, this article is aimed at based on public inquiry and public assessing and analyzing the opinion. Given this, full-fledged legal constitutional and legal content of the research should be based on public 2020 amendments to the Constitution of opinion and the data of opinion polls. the RF. The method of comparative Besides, we note that the initial jurisprudence was used to compare vote on amendments to the Constitution constitutional norms (the text of the of the RF was planned to be scheduled Constitution of the RF) with the for April 22, 2020, but due to the constitutional norms of foreign states pandemic, the vote was postponed to a (USA, Germany, France) to determine later date. Perhaps the vote will be held the features of the constitutional system in the summer of 2020. of Russia and Russia's place among foreign states. Methods The historical method makes it In this work, we use the possible to conduct a retrospective following research methods: the analysis of the effect of constitutional V. 01 - Nº 01 - Ano 2020 – Special Edition 777 norms, to determine the historical Sometimes this was associated with the prerequisites for the adoption of the formation of a state or a change in the Constitution of the RF in 1993 and constitutional system (Constitution of amendments to it, to prove the positive the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist or negative effect of certain Republic (RSFSR) of 1918, Constitution constitutional norms in space and time. of the USSR of 1924, Constitution of the This is especially important for RF of 1993), in other cases with the justifying the feasibility of amending the registration of the results of the state's Constitution of the RF in 2020. policy (Constitution of the USSR of The formal legal method is 1936 and 1977). aimed at the design and presentation of a The Constitution of the RF in scientific text and allows formulating 1993 was adopted in the conditions of a statements, hypotheses, and concepts, as fierce struggle between the Supreme well as giving interpretations to certain Soviet of the RSFSR and the first constitutional norms. The formal legal President of the RF B.N. Yeltsin, the method is used in all sections of this result of which was the dissolution of the article and allows it to be formalized as a Russian parliament and the submission legal study in the field of constitutional to a popular vote on December 12, 1993, law. of the "presidential" draft of the Results Constitution of Russia. The The study of the prerequisites, "presidential" draft differed from the grounds, and content of the 2020 draft constitution proposed by the amendments to the Constitution of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR, in the RF is impossible without a digression vesting of the President of the RF with into the history of the 20th century on the extensive powers and the formalization issue of adopting constitutions in Russia of a presidential republic in Russia. and introducing amendments to them. The Constitution of the RF of Constitutional practice in 1993 contains the main liberal values: Russia shows that every head of state, the priority of human rights (Art. 2); since the adoption of the first private property (part 2 of Art. 8); market Constitution of Russia in 1918, initiated economy (part 1 of Art. 8); ideological the creation of a new constitution. and political pluralism (Art. 13); the rule V. 01 - Nº 01 - Ano 2020 – Special Edition 778 of law (Art. 15); the freedom of labor lower than the subsistence rate. (part 1 of Art. 37). Structural changes in the procedure for Thus, the 1993 Constitution of empowering officials (ministers, the RF contains liberal values and prosecutors), expanding the powers of formalizes a strong "presidential" power. the Federation Council of the Federal Over the more than 20 years of Assembly of the RF (hereinafter the existence of the Constitution of the RF, Federation Council) are approved by society has formed its idea of approximately 60% of Russians constitutional values, which does not (Popravki k Konstitutsii: znachenie i always coincide with the official state otnoshenie, 2020). doctrine (Komarova, 2019). The sociological polls cited Sociological polls show that the above prove that the population of population of the RF retains a positive Russia has a positive attitude towards the attitude towards the Soviet state and its Soviet system based on the demands for system.