CURRENT ISSUES OF INTERPRETATION AND IMPLEMENTATION OF THE THEORY OF SEPARATION OF POWERS IN THE USA AND RUSSIA
Authors:
Type:
Article
Pages:
from 22
to 27
Status:
Published
Received:
07.04.2017
Accepted:
14.04.2017
Published:
14.04.2017
Subject area:
UDK 34 Право. Юридические науки
BBK 67 Право. Юридические науки
BBK 67 Право. Юридические науки
Language:
Russian, English
Keywords:
separation of powers, system of checks and balances, US government, Russian government, branches of government, state power.
Abstract (English):
Fundamental bases of modern democracies can be traced back to the ideas of prominent philosophers of XVII—XVIII centuries. One of such basic elements is the principle of separation of powers, which is firmly rooted in state institution design and became an indispensable aspect of any democratic regime. Differences of Montesque’s theory interpretation and its further implementation as the principle of separation of powers are considered in this article. The main focus of the article is not on the practical aspects of operation of governments but on analyzing the difference in genuine perception among people about the basic features of the principle in the United States (where separation of powers was implemented for the first time in history as a pivotal part of a new government) and in Russia (where the principle was included into state’s institutional structure more than 200 years later). Thenature of the power, a role and status of a head of state, historically inherited notion of “state power” in the Russian legal doctrine, — all these issues have been the key distinguishing factors of two diverse models of the principle of separation of powers and closely connected to its system of checks and balances in Russia and the United States. The US model tends to reflect a more classical type of the theory of separation of powers’ interpretation, while in Russia due to the Russian legal legacy the essence of the theory is considered in the context of the division of a single unified state power into three independent branches of power. Is it possible that one of the separation of powers models can be considered universal or every pattern is unique and effective in fact only within its own state system?
Fundamental bases of modern democracies can be traced back to the ideas of prominent philosophers of XVII—XVIII centuries. One of such basic elements is the principle of separation of powers, which is firmly rooted in state institution design and became an indispensable aspect of any democratic regime. Differences of Montesque’s theory interpretation and its further implementation as the principle of separation of powers are considered in this article. The main focus of the article is not on the practical aspects of operation of governments but on analyzing the difference in genuine perception among people about the basic features of the principle in the United States (where separation of powers was implemented for the first time in history as a pivotal part of a new government) and in Russia (where the principle was included into state’s institutional structure more than 200 years later). Thenature of the power, a role and status of a head of state, historically inherited notion of “state power” in the Russian legal doctrine, — all these issues have been the key distinguishing factors of two diverse models of the principle of separation of powers and closely connected to its system of checks and balances in Russia and the United States. The US model tends to reflect a more classical type of the theory of separation of powers’ interpretation, while in Russia due to the Russian legal legacy the essence of the theory is considered in the context of the division of a single unified state power into three independent branches of power. Is it possible that one of the separation of powers models can be considered universal or every pattern is unique and effective in fact only within its own state system?
Keywords:
separation of powers, system of checks and balances, US government, Russian government, branches of government, state power.
separation of powers, system of checks and balances, US government, Russian government, branches of government, state power.
1. Ball H. Constitutional Powers: Cases on the Separation of Powers and Federalism. St. Paul, Minnesota, 1980.
