European constitutionalism: development of the idea and legal means of public power limiting

The article actualizes the problem of formation, development, the current state of the constitutionalist idea and the corresponding legal means of limiting public power. This is not about numerous constitutionalist political and legal doctrines, its definition or classification: the thesis characterization of the historical stages of the struggle of civil society against the despotism of the state, competing or affiliated institutions (economic, military and spiritual) allows us to reveal the patterns of dialectics of the essential idea for constitutionalism and appropriate legal means of limiting public authority.The author used the historical-comparative, formal-logical, method of legal dogmatics and specification of legal cases (description of specific cases). The use of these methods made it possible to investigate the embodiment of the constitutionalist idea of limiting public power that corresponds to the legal culture of a particular era; the main legal means of limiting public power in the past and present; the potential for updating the constitutionalist idea and legal means of limiting public power. The idea and legal means of limiting public power are concretized on the materials of the most developed legal systems of the past and present, recognizing and implementing European-type democracy as the basis of the political and legal structure.