Key features of a democratic society

A democratic state is a state whose structure and activity corresponds to the will of the people, universally recognized rights and freedoms of man and citizen. A democratic state is an essential element of a civil society democracy based on people's freedom. The source of power and legitimacy of all organs of this state is the sovereignty of the people.

The sovereignty of the people means that:

• •    the subject of public authority, both state and non-state, is the people as the aggregate of the entire population of the country;

• •    the object of the sovereign power of the people can be all those social relations that are of public interest throughout the country.

This feature testifies to the fullness of the sovereign power of the people;

• •    supremacy is characteristic of the sovereignty of a people’s power when a people acts as a single whole and is the sole bearer of public power and the spokesman of the supreme power in all its forms and specific manifestations.

The subjects of democracy can be:

• •    individual citizens, their associations;

• •    state bodies and public organizations;

• •    people as a whole.

In the modern sense, democracy should not be seen as the power of the people, but as the participation of citizens (people) and their associations in the exercise of power. The forms of this participation can be different (membership in a party, participation in a demonstration, participation in the election of the president, governor, deputies, complaints, statements, etc., etc.). If the subject of democracy can be both an individual person and a group of people, as well as the whole people, then the subject of democracy can be only the people as a whole. The concept of a democratic state is inextricably linked with the concepts of a constitutional and legal state; in a sense, we can talk about the synonymy of all three terms. A democratic state cannot but be both constitutional and legal.

The state can correspond to the characteristic of a democratic only in the conditions of an established civil society. This state should not strive for states, it should strictly adhere to the established limits of intervention in economic and spiritual life, which ensure freedom of enterprise and culture. The functions of a democratic state include ensuring the common interests of the people, but with the unconditional observance and protection of the rights and freedoms of man and citizen. Such a state is the antipode of a totalitarian state; these two concepts are mutually exclusive.

The most important features of a democratic state are:

• 1.    real representative democracy;

• 2.    ensuring the rights and freedoms of man and citizen.

Principles of a Democratic State. The basic principles of a democratic state are:

• 1.    recognition of the people as a source of power, a sovereign in the state;

• 2.    the existence of the rule of law;

• 3.    Submission of the minority to the majority in decision-making and implementation;

• 4.    separation of powers;

• 5.    electivity and turnover of the main organs of the state;

• 6.    control of society over law enforcement agencies;

• 7.    political pluralism;

• 8.    publicity.

The principles of a democratic state (in relation to the Russian Federation):

• •    The principle of respect for human rights, their priority over state rights.

• •    The rule of law.

• •    The principle of democracy.

• •    The principle of federalism.

• •    The principle of separation of powers.

• •    Principles of ideological and political pluralism.

• •    The principle of the diversity of forms of economic activity.

More detailsForms of Democracy. The sovereign will of the people can be expressed in two main forms:

• •    directly:1. by referendum; 2. through free elections of state authorities.

• •    in representative forms.

Representative democracy - the exercise by the people of power through elective institutions that represent citizens and are vested with the exclusive right to pass laws. Representative bodies (parliaments, elected local governments) are vested with the right to resolve the most important issues of people's life (declaring war, adopting a budget, imposing a state of emergency and martial law, resolving territorial disputes, etc.). Constitutions in various countries give representative bodies various powers, but the mandatory and most important among them are the functions of the legislature and the adoption of the budget.

Representative bodies are not necessarily called upon to directly control executive power - this is recognized only in states with a parliamentary form of government, but under any system these bodies are still vested with separate constitutional powers in this area. The effectiveness of representative bodies in a huge, if not decisive, degree depends on cooperation with the executive branch. Another no less important condition is the independence of the representative institution within its powers, the absence of a competing legislative power, the non-interference of the executive power in the prerogatives of representative institutions.