THE ESSENSE OF CONSTITUTIONALISM: CONSTITUTIONALISM AS IDEOLOGY, DOCTRINE AND PRACTICE OF LIMITED GOVERNMENT

Abstract

The article investigates the essence of constitutionalism. It is proved that a phenomenon of constitutionalism has a complex philosophical and political-legal nature and comprises three main sections: ideology, philosophical and legal doctrine and constitutional system of government. In a broad sense it is a system of relations between a human, the society and the state, in which individual rights and freedoms are really guaranteed, the society is free, and state power is actually limited by constitutional means. In a narrow sense, it is reduced to a constitutional system of government (ruling mechanism), which is a system of actors, institutions, forms, tools, and methods of government in the state, based on the ideas of human dignity, freedom, rule of law, democracy and limited government. In the ideological aspect constitutionalism is based on liberal ideas, practical implementation of which in fact led to the emergence of this phenomenon. Different combinations (in various models of constitutionalism) of ideas of individual freedom and democracy (popular sovereignty) are at the core of constitutionalism. Two traditions of liberalism (in Hayek ‑ American and European) actually led to corresponding models of constitutionalism. European constitutionalism is based on the ideology of liberal democracy whith the original principles of freedom and equality, human rights, periodic elections, «open» society, rule of law, representative democracy, popular sovereignty. The institutional mechanism through which they are implemented is a constitutional system of government. The doctrinal foundation of constitutionalism make up several theories – the concept of limiting state power for individual freedom, limiting state power for containment of government tyranny and the theory of self-limiting of the government. They are reflected in the constitutional systems of various countries. Their formation took place on the the background of national specificities, aggregate national, cultural, historical, political, social and economic characteristics of the respective societies. Therefore, if the ideological and doctrinal levels of constitutionalism are supranational, the constitutional system of government is the result of the implementation of certain common ideas and approaches, but has a distinct national character. Therefore, considering the constitutional systems of government of individual states we can isolate their similarities using the methodology of comparative studies but not unify them.