The Public Power System in the Russian Federation: New Approaches to Legal Regulation under the Constitutional Reform

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The paper is devoted to the examination of the Russian system of public power in the context of the constitutional reform. The aim of the study is to carry out a comprehensive theoretical and legal analysis of the current state of consolidation of the public power system in Russia under constitutional law. The author has examined the regulatory legal acts that mediate the implementation of the constitutional reform in Russia; doctrinal sources and significant foreign experience relevant to the subject matter of the study. Methodologically, the study is based on general philosophical, general scientific, private scientific, special scientific methods. The paper defines the fundamental properties of the system of public power enshrined in the Constitution of the Russian Federation with due regard to such parameters as the peculiarities of the construction of federal relations as the fundamental functions and powers of public authorities allocated vertically, the state of the system of separation of powers in the context of checks and balances, the level of legal protection and autonomy of local authorities. The author has determined that the constitutional reform regarding the consolidation of the system of public power has encouraged development and strengthening of the principle of subsidiarity when differentiating jurisdictions and powers in relations between the state authorities of the Russian Federation and its constituent entities; clarification of the spatial limit of the governmental rule of the Federation by means of constitutional legitimation of Federal Territories; creation of the basis for overcoming the “conflict of competences (jurisdictions)” between state and municipal levels of power in order to ensure the constitutional law balance between the branches of state power at the federal level to prevent the development of non-systemic conflicts in the system of checks and balances and the emergence of constitutional crises of power. A suggested system of public power retains the necessary discretionary mechanisms to adjust the mechanism of its individual elements in order to achieve a balance between public functions, powers and tasks to be solved.