2020 Constitutional Reform as the Problem of Legitimacy Theory

The legitimacy is one of the key resources of stability for all political regimes but its importance growing still much in regimes under transformation. The general legitimacy theory exposes why and how the dominant political class disposes the trust of society to stay in power by using available symbolic, moral and legal resources of self-legitimization. In contemporary law-based state the ground of the legitimacy is normally associated with the national constitution – its fundamental values, principles and norms as well as with general public agreement on mode of their application by government institutions and officials. Thus, each important constitutional revision means both the challenge to the established legitimacy and an attempt to reconstruct it in new forms. The author analyses the impact of Russian 2020 constitutional reform in the transformation of the Russian political regime legitimacy. He exposes the reciprocal interconnections between legitimacy and constitutionalism, regarding such items as positive and negative law-making impulses; substantive and instrumental aspects of reform; national, regional and local dimensions; constitutional and meta-constitutional parameters of the legitimization process as well as declared and undeclared reasons, motives, arguments and political technologies of amending process. According his conclusion, the main result of the Russian constitutional reform consists in the reconstructed legitimacy formula as a legal ground for consolidation of power under transition process and a fresh start for the new form of constitutional authoritarianism.

1. Amendments to the Constitution: Meaning and Attitude. Analytical Review of VTsIOM [Popravki v Konstitutsiyu: znachenie i otnoshenie. Analiticheskii obzor VTSIOM] (date of circulation February 3, 2020) [Электронный ресурс] URL: https://wciom.ru/index.php?id=236&uid=10146 (дата обращения: 05.10.2020). (in rus)

2. Constitutional Principles and Ways of Their Implementation: Russian Context. Analytical Report [Konstitutsionnye printsipy i puti ikh realizatsii: Rossiiskii kontekst. Analiticheskii doklad]. M .: Institute of Law and Public Policy [IPPP], 2014. 75 p. (in rus)

3. Finer, S. E., Bogdanor, V., Rudden, B. Comparing Constitutions. Oxford : Clarendon Press, 1995, 395 p.

4. Hermet, G., Badie, B., Birnbaum, P., Braud, Ph. Dictionnaire de la science politique et des Institutions politiques. Paris : Armand Colin, 1994. 280 р.

5. Medushevskiy, A. N. Constitutional Amendments in Russia in 2020 as a Political Project of State Reconstruction [Konstitutsionnye popravki 2020 kak politicheskii proekt pereustroistva gosudarstva] // Public Policy [Publichnaya politika], 2020. Vol. 4. No. 1. Pp. 43–66. (in rus)

6. Medushevskiy, A. N. Rebirth of the Empire? Russian Constitutional Reform 2020 Against the Background of Global Changes [Ozrozhdenie Imperii? Rossiiskaya konstitutsionnaya reforma 2020 na fone global’nykh izmenenii] // Bulletin of Europe [Vestnik Evropy], 2020. Vol. 54 [Электронный ресурс]. URL: http://www.vestnik-evropy.ru/issues/the-revival-of-the-empire-russian-constitutional-reform-2020-against-the-background-of-global-change.html (дата обращения: 05.10.2020). (in rus)

7. Medushevskiy, A. N. The Russia’s Move to Constitutional Dictatorship: Reflections on 2020 Constitutional Amendments [Perekhod Rossii k konstitutsionnoi diktature: razmyshleniya o znachenii reformy 2020] // Comparative Constitutional Review [Sravnitel’noe konstitutsionnoe obozrenie], 2020. No. 3 (136). Pp. 33–50. (in rus)

8. Metamorphoses of the Russian Constitution [Metamorfozy Konstitutsii Rossii] // Comparative Constitutional Review [Sravnitel’noe konstitutsionnoe obozrenie], 2020. No. 3 (136). Pp. 33–96. (in rus)

9. Mosca, G. Storia delle dottrine politiche. Bari : Laterza e Figli, 1945, 350 р.

10. Partlett, W. Russia’s 2020 Constitutional Amendments [Popravki k Konstitutsii Rossii 2020 goda] // Comparative Constitutional Review [Sravnitel’noe konstitutsionnoe obozrenie], 2020. No. 3 (136). Pp. 51–62. (in rus)

11. Resetting and the Spirit of the Constitution // Zakon, 2020. No. 3. Pp. 23–37. (in rus)

12. Round Table: “Changes in the Constitution of the Russian Federation and Public Policy”, February 27, 2020 [Kruglyi stol: «Izmeneniya v Konstitutsii RF i publichnaya politika», 27 fevralya 2020] // Public Policy [Publichnaya politika], 2020. Vol. 4. No. 1. Pp. 9–42. (in rus)

13. Rumyantsev, O. G. Constitutional Reform 2020 in the Russian Federation: Biased Assessment [Konstitutsionnaya reforma 2020 v RF: pristrastnaya otsenka] // Constitutional Bulletin [Konstitutsionnyi vestnik], 2020. No. 5 (23). Pp. 6–32. (in rus)

14. Schmitt, C. Legalität und Legitimität. Berlin : Dunker und Humblot, 1968. 98 p.

15. Transcript of the Joint Meeting of the Constitutional Club and the Commission of the Association of Lawyers of Russia for the Development of Constitutional Legal Awareness Dated January 21, 2020 [Stenogramma sovmestnogo zasedaniya Konstitutsionnogo kluba i Komissii Assotsiatsii yuristov Rossii po razvitiyu konstitutsionnogo pravosoznaniya ot 21 yanvarya 2020] // Constitutional Bulletin [Konstitutsionnyi vestnik], 2020. No. 5 (23). Pp. 55–75. (in rus)

16. Weber, M. An Attempt of Comparative Research in the Sociology of Religion [Popytka sravnitel’nogo issledovaniya v oblasti sotsiologii religii] // Weber M. Favorites. The Image of Society [Izbrannoe. Obraz obshchestva]. M. : Jurist [Yurist], 1994. Pp. 43–77.

17. Yi Ching [Itszin] Book of Changes [Kniga peremen]. SPb. : Azbuka-klassika [Azbuka-klassika], 2008. Pp. 234–245. (in rus)