M. Kovalevsky about European experience of parliamentarism and perspectives of Russian modernization

The article analyzes Kovalevsky’s understanding of the historical experience of European parliamentarism in the context of Russia’s political modernization of the early twentieth century. The historical experience of parliamentarism is studied on the example of the European, and in particular the British model. The main events that ensured in England the transition from the monarchy to the constitutional one to the parliamentary one were characterized. Kovalevsky understands the essence of parliamentarism. The article attempts to prove that Kovalevsky did not see a direct relationship between the political regime and the form of government, and as a consequence, the absence of Kovalevsky’s contradictions between monarchy and parliamentarism. The position of M.M. Kovalevsky on the issue of democratic reform of Russia’s political system, taking into account its specifics, including the possibility of preserving the monarchical system. The notion “people’s monarchy” is disclosed as a desired result of constitutional reforms in Russia. The position of Kovalevsky on the issue of the Bulygin Duma, its role and place in the reform of the state system of the Russian Empire was determined.