Problems of the implementation of social state and the constitutional reform 2020

The 1993 Constitution of the Russian Federation enshrined the principle of social state, a number of social rights of citizens and other provisions of a social nature. However, according to many researchers, the actual situation, including mass poverty and extreme property differentiation of the population, and the dominant vector of social policy, which is reflected in commercialization and "optimization" of the social sphere, raising the retirement age, strengthening the selective character of social assistance, etc. speak of the dismantling of the welfare state. At the same time, the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation does not adequately fulfill its function of protecting the Constitution and, in particular, ensuring the constitutional principle of social state and social rights of citizens, does not recognize the legislative norms that normatively formalize such reforms as unconstitutional, sometimes - as in the case of considering the constitutionality of increasing retirement age in 2018 - actually avoiding consideration of the case on the merits. The draft Law on Amendment to the Constitution of the Russian Federation "On Improving Regulation of Certain Issues of Organizing Public Authority", proposed by the President of Russia in the winter of2020, was substantiated, inter alia, by considerations of the development of social state, ensuring the social rights of citizens and the corresponding social obligations of the State. The article shows which of the key social problems could be solved within the framework of the previous version of the Constitution; the question is examined whether their solution requires its changing. It is shown that the Law on Amendment to the Constitution of the Russian Federation adopted in the spring of 2020 does not solve a number of the key social problems in modern Russia, and does not make enough use of foreign experience in constitutional regulation of the social sphere. Based on the experience of other countries, the article proposes a number of norms, the constitutional enshrining of which could to a greater extent ensure implementation of the principle of social state.