Constitutional regulation of the activities of political parties from the perspective of the global trends of constitutional and legal development

---

The expansion of the subject of constitutional regulation led to the inclusion in the constitutions of foreign countries of norms that establish the basis of the legal status of political parties, which began to occur after the First World War, and has become a global trend since the middle of the 20th century. The current significant difference in the volume of regulation of these institutions in the constitutions has led to an analysis of its causes. The methodological basis for this study is the position put forward by S.A.Avakian on the conditionality of the content of the Constitution by a number of features. With regard to the regulation of the legal status of political parties, the most important features are the time of adoption of the Constitution, the presence or absence of an anti-democratic regime in the past, the conditions for the adoption of the Constitution, the balance of political forces at the time of its adoption, and the goals pursued by the drafters of the Constitution. The source base is the existing written constitutions of States with different political regimes and the level of development of democracy. The degree of regulation of political parties in the constitutions is analyzed using the method of frequency content analysis. The results of the study indicate the absence of significant correlation between the degree of regulation of the legal status of political parties in the constitutions of foreign countries and the nature of the existing political and party systems, and allow one to subdivide constitutionalization of political parties in the formal, which is expressed in the inclusion of rules governing the basis of the legal status of political parties in the texts of constitutions, and the actual, which consists primarily of the possibility of practical implementation laid down in the Constitution of the right to join a party. The lack of formal constitutionalization is compensated by the norms of organic laws, current legislation, the judicial practice of national courts, and decisions of the European Court of Human Rights. Considering the trends of constitutional and legal development, it is possible to predict an increase in the number of norms that determine the basis of the legal status of political parties in the texts of the constitutions that will be adopted in the future. First of all, this will be reflected in the constitutions of States where there are no longer democratic traditions. This circumstance will lead to a gradual smoothing of the differences between the formal and actual constitutionalization of political parties in these countries.

About the author: Fyodor Dolgikh – Candidate of Sciences (Ph.D.) in History, Chair of Theory and History of State and Law, Moscow University for Industry and Finance “Synergy”, Moscow, Russia.

Citation: Dolgikh F. (2019) Konstitutsionnaya reglamentatsiya deyatel'nosti politi­cheskikh partiy v svete global'nykh tendentsiy konstitutsionno-pravovogo razvitiya [Constitutional regulation of the activities of political parties in the light of the global trends of constitutional and legal development]. Sravnitel'noe konstitutsionnoe obozrenie, vol.28, no.4, pp.102–115. (In Russian).

References

Auerbach C.A. (1956) The Communist Control Act of 1954: A Proposed Legal-political Theory of Free Speech. The University of Chicago Law Review, vol.23, no.2, pp.173–220.

Avak'yan S.A. (1997) Konstitutsiya Rossii: priroda, evolyutsiya, sovremennost' [The Constitution of Russia: nature, evolution, modernity], Moscow: Russian Legal Publishing House. (In Russian).

Avtonomov A.S. (2005) Konstitutsionnoe (gosudarstvennoe) pravo zarubezhnykh stran [Constitutional (state) law of foreign countries], Moscow: TK Velbi; Prospekt. (In Russian).

Avtonomov A.S. (2007) Partii i partiynye sistemy v Rossii i v mire: istoriya i sovremennost' [Parties and party systems in Russia and in the world: history and modernity]. Gosudarstvennaya vlast' i mestnoe samoupravlenie, no.8, pp.31–39. (In Russian).

Belousova K.A., Gorshkova V.N., Rodriges A.M., Shakhov A.S. (2014) Noveyshaya istoriya stran Azii i Afriki. XX vek [Recent History of Asia and Africa. The twentieth century: a textbook], vol.3, Moscow: Gumanitarnyy izdatel'skiy tsentr “VLADOS”. (In Russian).

Bobotov S.V., Zhigachev I.Yu. (1997) Vvedenie v pravovuyu sistemu SShA [Introduction to the US legal system], Moscow: Norma. (In Russian).

Bondar' N.S. (2011) Sudebnyy konstitutsionalizm v Rossii v svete konstitu­tsionnogo pravosudiya [Judicial constitutionalism in Russia in the light of constitutional justice], Moscow: Norma: Infra-M. (In Russian).

Bondar' N.S. (2014) Konstitutsionnaya modernizatsiya rossiyskoy gosudarstvennosti v svete praktiki konstitutsionnogo pravosudiya [Constitutional modernization of the Russian statehood in the light of the practice of constitutional justice], Moscow: Yuniti-Dana. (In Russian).

Çarkoğlu A., Hinich M.J. (2006) A Spatial Analysis of Turkish Party Preferences. Electoral Studies, vol.25, no.2, pp.369–392.

Carlin R.E. (2011) What’s not to Trust? Rubrics of Political Party Trustworthiness in Chile and Argentina. Party Politics, vol.20, no.1, pp.63–77.

Chytilek R., Kopeček L., Šedo J., Stojarová V. (2007) Political Parties in Central and Eastern Europe: In Search of Consolidation, Stockholm: International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance. Available at: https://www.idea.int/sites/default/files/publications/political-parties-in-central-and-eastern-europe-in-search-of-consolidation.pdf (acces­sed: 27.06.2019).

Dolgikh F. (2016) Pravovoe regulirovanie sozdaniya politicheskikh partiy v Rossii i Kazakhstane i ego vliyanie na formirovanie partiynykh system [Legal regulation of the creation of political parties in Russia and Kazakhstan and its influence on the formation of party systems]. Sravnitel'noe konstitutsionnoe obozrenie, no.4, pp.92–106. (In Russian).

Holmberg S. (2003) Are Political Parties Necessary? Electoral Studies, vol.22, no.2, pp.287–299.

Isaev M.A. (2013) Modernizatsiya Osnovnogo zakona. Opyt Norvegii [Modernization of the Basic Law: experience of Norway]. Gosudarstvo i pravo, no.6, pp.103–111. (In Russian).

Jones J.M. (2016) Americans Trust in Political Leaders, Public at New Lows. Gallup. Available at: https://news.gallup.com/poll/195716/americans-trust-political-leaders-public-new-lows.aspx (accessed: 24.11.2018).

Kakitelashvili M.M. (2017) Parlament Evraziyskogo ekonomicheskogo soyuza i rol' politicheskikh partiy v ego formirovanii: postanovka problemy [The Parliament of the Eurasian Economic Union and the role of political parties in its formation: problem statement]. Monitoring pravoprimeneniya, no.4, pp.23–31. (In Russian).

Lan'kov A.N. (2004) KNDR vchera i segodnya. Neformal'naya istoriya Severnoy Korei [North Korea: yesterday and today. Informal history of North Korea], Moscow: Vostok-Zapad. (In Russian).

Maklakov V.V. (ed.) (2002) Konstitutsii zarubezhnykh gosudarstv [Constitutions of foreign states], 3rd ed., Moscow: BEK. (In Russian).

Markova E.N. (2009) Konstitutsionalizatsiya politicheskikh partiy v gosudarstvakh Vostochnoy Evropy [The constitutionalization of political parties in Eastern European countries]. Konstitutsionnoe i munitsipal'noe pravo, no.15, pp.35–40. (In Russian).

Okun'kov L.A. (ed.) (2001) Konstitutsii gosudarstv Evropy [Constitution of European States], vol.2, Moscow: Norma. (In Russian).

Özbudun E. (2001) The Institutional Decline of Parties in Turkey. In: Diamond L., Gunther R. (eds.) Political Parties and Democracy, Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, pp.239–241.

Rumyantsev A. (2009) Nemetskoe obshchestvo, gosudarstvo i pravo v 1949–2009 godakh: chto bylo, chto izmenilos' i chego mozhno ozhidat' [German society, state and law in 1949–2009: what was, what has changed and what can be expected]. Sravnitel'noe konstitutsionnoe obozrenie, no.3, pp.60–82. (In Russian).

Strashun B.A. (ed.) (2007) Konstitutsionnoe (gosudarstvennoe) pravo zarubezhnykh stran. Obshchaya chast' [Constitutional (state) law of foreign countries. General part], 4th ed., Moscow: Norma. (In Russian).

Sajo A. (2004) Samozashchita konstitutsionnogo gosudarstva [Self-defense of the constitutional state]. Sravnitel'noe konstitutsionnoe obozrenie, no.2, pp.1–10. (In Russian).

Shlykov P.V. (2013) Transformatsiya partiyno-politicheskoy sistemy Turtsii v 1983–2013 gg. i mobilizatsionnye strategii oppozitsii. Chast' 1 [Transformation of the party-political system of Turkey in 1983–2013 and opposition mobilization strategies. Part 1]. Vestnik Moskovskogo universiteta. Seriya 13: Vostokovedenie, no.3, pp.36–54. (In Russian).

Troitskaya A.A. (2015) Voinstvuyushchaya demokratiya i zapret politi­cheskikh partiy: praktika vperedi teorii? [Militant democracy and the prohibition of political parties: practice ahead of theory?]. Konstitutsionnoe i munitsipal'noe pravo, no.9, pp.54–62. (In Russian).

Tyulkina S. (2013) Zapret deyatel'nosti politicheskoy partii: effektivnyy instrument zashchity demokratii? [Prohibition of political parties: an effective tool for the protection of democracy?]. Sravnitel'noe konstitutsionnoe obozrenie, no.3, pp.74–81. (In Russian).

Yudin Yu.A. (1998) Politicheskie partii i pravo v sovremennom gosudarstve [Political parties and law in the modern state], Moscow: Forum; Infra-M. (In Russian).

Zaikin S. (2011) Nekotorye aspekty “monopolizma” politicheskikh partiy [Some aspects of the “monopoly” of political parties]. Sravnitel'noe konstitutsionnoe obozrenie, no.6, pp.77–81. (In Russian).

Zaretskiy A.M. (2015) Politicheskie partii Kazakhstana – istoriya i sovremennost' [Political parties of Kazakhstan – history and modernity]. Sovremennaya nauka: aktual'nye problemy teorii i praktiki. Seriya: Ekonomika i pravo, no.11–12, pp.143–150. (In Russian).

Zaretskiy A.M. (2016) Vliyanie klanovo-zhuzovykh otnosheniy na politiche­skuyu sistemu Respubliki Kazakhstan [Influence of clan-zoose relations on the political system of the Republic of Kazakhstan]. Vestnik Evraziy­skoy akademii administrativnykh nauk, no.4, pp.96–98. (In Russian).