Constitution as a stability margin of a state: Does the potential of the 1993 Russian Constitution remain?

The Constitution is considered to be a mega-regulator of relationships in society and in the state that provides a particular reservation of potential stability. This can be evaluated using a physics-based approach that includes an entropic resource as its basis. Entropy is a general expression of numerous process anomalies and accumulated dysfunction. Political and ideological diversity, along with other democratic principles, are beneficial, but costly. They facilitate a quick increase in entropy, which needs to be compensated by economic mechanisms and/or a wide attraction of intellectual resources (such as science). However, the real situation in the country demonstrates that the economy is failing to meet this requirement, and that the government is not considering science to be an important regulator. In these circumstances, the potential stability of the Constitution is quickly spent, although currently it has not yet been exhausted. Changing the constitution–not just changing one legal document for another–is a complex process that results in a loss of control of a portion of the system’s connections and that stimulates a search of alternative paths of development. Without the reserve of potential constitutional stability, one can count on changing the constitution only in extreme circumstances. Even in the best of conditions, the process of changing a constitution causes an increase in instability. At the same time, changing a constitution can lead to yet another resurrection of the question of the status of subjects of the federation and the process of their separation could inadvertently begin. The author concludes that the current Russian Constitution of 1993 has adequate stability in reserve and, therefore making its replacement unreasonable.

About the author: Yury Baturin – Corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Doctor of Sciences in Law, Professor, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia.

Citation: Baturin Yu. (2018) Konstitutsiya kak resurs stabil’nosti gosudarstva: Sokhra­nyaetsya li potentsial Konstitutsii Rossii 1993 goda? [Constitution as a stability margin of a state: Does the potential of the 1993 Russian Constitution remain?]. Sravnitel’noe konstitutsionnoe obozrenie, vol.27, no.2, pp.104–115.

References

Baturin Yu. (2008) Konstitutsiya Rossii – sobytie na granitse khaosa i po­ryadka [The Constitution of Russia is an event on the frontier of chaos and order]. Sravnitel'noe konstitutsionnoe obozrenie, no.6, pp.43–56. (In Russian).

Baturin Yu.M. (2017) Konets epokhi. O proekte Soyuznogo 1991 goda [End of the era. About the draft of the Union Treaty of 1991]. In: Trudy Otdeleniya istoriko-filologicheskikh nauk RAN [Papers of the Department of Historical and Philological Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences], Moscow: Nauka. (In Russian).

Danilov Yu.A. (2008) Prekrasnyy mir nauki: sbornik statey [Beautiful world of science: a collection of articles], Yu.A.Danilov (ed.), Moscow: Progress-Traditsiya. (In Russian).

Il'in V.N. (2005) Termodinamika i sotsiologiya: Fizicheskie osnovy sotsial'nykh protsessov i yavleniy[Thermodynamics and sociology. The physical basis of social processes and phenomena] Moscow: KomKniga. (In Russian).

Laletin I.N. (2013) Grazhdanskie protesty v rossiyskom obshchestve v uslo­viyakh transformatsii: formiovanie i sotsial'naya dinamika: avtoref. dis. … kand. sotsiol. nauk [Civil protests in Russian society in transformation: formation and social dynamics: Abstract of dissertation… candidate of social sciences], Rostov-on-Don. (In Russian).

Lepsky V.E. (2010) Refleksivno-aktivnye sredy innovatsionnogo razvitiya [Reflexively active mediums of innovative development], Moscow: Kogito-Tsentr. (In Russian).

Lisitsin-Svetlanov A.G. (ed.) (2013) Dvadtsat' let Konstitutsii Rossiyskoy Federatsii: monorafiya [Twenty years of the Constitution of the Russian Federation: monograph], Moscow: Norma. (In Russian).

Medushevsky A.N. (ed.) (2013) Osnovy konstitutsionnogo stroya Rossii: dvadtsat' let razvitiya[Fundamentals of the constitutional system of Russia: twenty years of development], Moscow: Institut prava i publich­noy politiki. (In Russian).

Prigozhin I. (2001) Vvedenie v termodinamiku neobratimykh protsessov [Introduction to the thermodynamics of irreversible processes], Izhevsk: NITs “Regular and chaotic dynamics”. (In Russian).

Prigozhin I., Kondepudi D. (2009) Sovremennaya termodinamika. Ot teplovykh dvigateley do dissipativnykh struktur [Modern thermodynamics. From heat engines to dissipative structures], Moscow: Mir. (In Russian).

Rikhter A.G. (2007) Svoboda massovoy informatsii v postsovetskom pro­stranstve [Freedom of mass information in the post-Soviet space], Moscow: VK. (In Russian).

Rumyantsev O.G. (2013) Konstitutsiya Devyanosto tret'ego. Istoriya yavle­niya. (Dokumental'naya poema v semi chastyakh ot Otvetstvennogo sekretarya Konstitutsionnoy komissii 1990–1993 godov) [Constitution of the Ninety-third. History of the phenomenon. (Documentary poem in seven parts from the Executive Secretary of the Constitutional Commission of 1990–1993)], Moscow: ZAO “Bibliotechka RG”. (In Russian).

Shakhrai S.M. (2013) O Konstitutsii [About Constitution], Moscow: Nauka. (In Russian).

Smirnov A.V. (2010) O sotsial'noy “termodinamike” v rossiyskoy istorii [On social “thermodynamics” in Russian history]. Sravnitel'noe konstitutsionnoe obozrenie, no.2, pp.146–158. (In Russian).