Democracy and elections in the Russian Federation: some results of the first quarter of the post-Soviet period

The experience of conducting election campaigns at both federal and regional levels in the Russian Federation during the last quarter of this century has revealed various shortcomings in the electoral process, and the imperfection of the electoral legislation, due to the search for the most optimal solutions to certain problems. According to the author, one of the main reasons for the stagnation of the electoral legislation is the fact that in the Constitution of the Russian Federation there are no provisions establishing the principles for forming public authorities of the Russian Federation and its subjects, no basis of the electoral system, no order of their formation. In addition, another important factor in developing democratic institutions and democracy itself in the country is the low level of constitutional legal consciousness of citizens, which manifests in the already common absenteeism, as evidenced by statistical data. The author concludes that it is necessary to conduct a final scientific and legal revision of the electoral legislation, to consolidate the principles and types of the electoral systems used in elections of both federal and regional (subjective) state authorities at the constitutional level if we really want to comply with the constitutional description of the Russian Federation as a democratic rule-of-law state.