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Federalism and Elections in the Russian Federation: National and Regional Aspects

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2019

Sergey D. Knyazev
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Extract

Russian constitutional principles setting out a federal system and a republican form of government are integral attributes of Russian nationality. It makes it necessary to create an adequate blend of federalism and electoral politics. Accordingly, there is a special interest in the problem of electoral federalism. It implies, together with provisions for the unity of the Russian Federation's electoral system, fundamental principles, and real opportunities for the subjects of the Federation to independently solve problems on organizing and holding elections in their territories. At least, such an approach correlates to federalism and elections at the national and regional levels and is declared in the articles of the Constitution of the Russian Federation as well as decisions of the Russian Constitutional Court.

Type
The New Russia: Law and Legal Information IALL 25th Annual Course on International Law Librarianship
Information
International Journal of Legal Information , Volume 35 , Issue 2 , Summer 2007 , pp. 233 - 244
Copyright
Copyright © 2007 by the International Association of Law Libraries 

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References

1 In this regard, we should consider the Russian Federation Constitutional Court's provision of January 24, 1997 No 1-Π on the constitutionality of Udmurt Republic Law of April 17, 1996, “On the System of State Power Authorities in the Udmurt Republic.”Google Scholar

2 Collection of the Russian Federation Legislation. 1997. No 5. Art. 708.Google Scholar

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7 Collection of the Russian Federation Legislation. 2006. No 3. Article 336.Google Scholar

8 As a result, on the territory of the Primorsky Region, instead of 34 municipal formations took place before adoption of Federal Law of October 6, 2003. “On General Principles of Organizing Local Self-Government in the Russian Federation,” 178 municipalities, including 22 municipal regions, 12 urban districts, 116 rural and 29 urban settlements, were established. The number of municipal deputy corps was inconsiderable, having taken place before the reform, and was replaced by over two thousand local “parliamentaries.” According to the charters of the municipal formations, they total 2051 persons, 137 of them work professionally in the representative authorities.Google Scholar

9 According to the Article 35 of the Federal Law, “On General Principles of Organizing Local Self-Government in the Russian Federation,” the representative authority of the settlement is not formed if the number of voters is less than 100 persons. In this case, competence of the representative authority, including possible election of the head of settlement, is carried out by the meeting of citizens.Google Scholar

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12 The only exclusion from the general rule at present is the Dagestan Republic, Moskovskaya Oblast and St. Petersburg City, where distribution of all deputy mandates in the executive state power authority is based on the proportional electoral system.Google Scholar

13 Indirect confirmation can be founding the definitions of the Russian Federation Constitutional Court of November 20, 1995 No 77-Π about the refusal to consider the application of the deputies of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly and application of the Russian Federation Supreme Court about verifying constitutionality of some provisions of the Federal Law of June 21, 1995, “On the Election of Deputies of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation.” There, the Constitutional Court specified that stipulation of electoral procedures does not take place in the texts of constitutions, but by legislation, making the choice of any variant of the electoral system and its fixation in the law to depend on certain social and political conditions and be the issue of political viability. Thus, with constitutional jurisdiction it was officially recognized that the Russian Constitution implies the opportunity to hold elections by various electoral systems depending on the will of legislators. See. Collection of Legislation of the Russian Federation. 1995. No 49. Art. 4867.Google Scholar

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