Federalism as a principle of constitutional and legal regulation of relations between the center and regions: content, specificity, problems

The article is devoted to a detailed analysis of federalism from the point of view of the principle of constitutional and legal regulation of relations between the center and the regions; determined that the actual content of the principle of federalism is based solely on the voluntary co-operation and integration, and includes various forms of its practical implementation. The author formulates the concept of federalism from the point of view of the principle of constitutional and legal regulation of relations between the center and the regions. Analyzed the classification of federal political systems, based on the principle of coordinating the interests of the center and the regions; analyzed on the basis of classification of the author examines the characteristics of subspecies of the Federation (eg, confederation, federation, federatizm) and gives their main characteristics. Particular attention is paid to the analysis of a new form of federalism in the history of political union – consociational. It was revealed that in this form of state power is distributed between permanent and decentralized within state ethnic, religious, ideological or cultural groups. The article analyzes the new concept of «federation to federation», which reflects the occurrence of a number of federal states in the European Union. The author comes to the conclusion that this form of association strengthens the diversity of intergovernmental relations, at the same time creating and serious questions, the answers to which are generally still have uncertain. The problem of classification of different states to models of federalism. In conclusion, the author defines federalism as one of the most useful concepts structure of the state, the best way to preserve the territorial integrity of the State, as an effective form of development of a democratic political system.