State and civil society in the public policy system

Rule-of law state is a form of organization of state activities, where the state itself, all social communities and individuals respect the law and have the same attitude to it. Law in this case is the way of correlation between the state, society and the individual.

The principles of rule-of-law state are:

• 1)    creation of a legislative framework corresponding to the objectivity of law;

• 2)    consolidation in the legislation of a wide range of natural and inalienable democratic human rights, providing them with real material and other guarantees, reliable protection against any attack;

• 3)    separation of powers into legislative, executive and judicial branches: branches of government shall be independent of each other and act in accordance with the constitutional enshrined powers;

• 4)    law supremacy, on the basis and in pursuance of which all regulations are created and implemented;

• 5)    democratic distribution of competences between the federal entities at the federal structure of the state. The concept of "rule-of-law state" includes not only the subordination of government power to over constitutional norms, but limiting of its omnipotence in the interests of guaranteeing the rights of the individual in the face of the state. Rule-of-law state itself restricts certain set of permanent rules and regulations. The state becomes legal, precisely because it falls under the rule of law. Law has a priority over the state[2].

In rule-of-law state forms, ways and mechanisms of state, limits of the citizens freedom guaranteed by law are clearly and precisely defined.

General requirements to be met by rule-of-law state:

• •    legislation conformity with the most important issues of all classes and social groups, trends of socio-economic development and moral and psychological situation in the society;

• •    limited legislation interweaving to the context of the practical process of solving the urgent problems;

• •    strict compliance of current legislation with constitutional legislation;

• •    practical support of law supremacy towards sub-legal regulations;

• •    dialectical combination of stability and dynamism of the legislation;

• •    existence of tested democratic procedures of citizens’ participation in the legislative process;

• •    consideration of public opinion;

• •    existence of perfect legal mechanism to resolve disputes and conflicts between subjects of law at all levels of analytical, national, social structure;

• •    high level of legal awareness and legal culture of citizens[1].

Thus, rule-of-law state provides:

• 1)    law supremacy;

• 2)    maximum guarantee of human rights and freedoms;

• 3)    the equality of all people before the law and the courts[1].

Effective functioning of the rule of law requires the presence of equal partner, like civil society. Civil society is the sphere of absolute freedom of individuals in their relations with each other. It appears in the form of social, economic and cultural space in which free individuals interact realizing private issues and making individual choice.

Civil society is not an invention of our time. Ideas about civil society existed in ancient Greece and ancient Rome. But only in the XVII century English philosopher Thomas Hobbes in his work "About the citizen" and "Leviathan" outlined a coherent conception of civil society arising in the process of transition from the state of primeval, unbridled passion to the cultural society, in which peace and tranquility reign. Further, the idea of civil society was developed by John. Locke, J. -g. Rousseau, Kant and other thinkers.

The structure of the civil society:

• •    political parties, lobbying organizations (committees, commissions and councils) created under the legislative and governmental bodies;

• •    business associations, consumer associations, charitable foundations;

• •    municipal communes, voters associations, political clubs;

• •    church;

• •    family[4].

Important factors of civil society are:

• 1)    economical - mixed economy, variety of ownership forms, regulated market economy;

• 2)    political - decentralization of power, separation of powers, political pluralism, access of citizens to participate in government and public affairs, law supremacy and the equality of all people in front of it;

• 3)    spiritual - no monopoly of one ideology and worldview; freedom of conscience, civility[3].

Thus, civil society is a set of social relations, formal and informal structures (groups, teams), combined by specific interests (economical, ethnic, cultural) ensuring human living conditions, satisfaction and realization of various needs and interests of individuals, social groups out of state activities.

Civil society and state complement each other and depend on each other. It is not possible to build a democratic state without a mature civil society, because conscious free citizens are capable to creating the most rational forms of human society.

In the developed countries of the West there is a certain mechanism of interaction between civil society and rule-of-law state. It includes three main elements:

• •    implementation of the principle of separation of powers into legislative, executive and judicial;

• •    creation of a system of interaction through parties, elections, representative authorities;

• •    functional representation, ie, the development of communication channels between the state and society in the form of various advisory committees and commissions of the state structures, in which representatives of groups and common-interest associations take part[5].

Such mechanism was formed as a result of a long evolution of the state and civil society.

For successful functioning of the political system of the state of the possible relationship of options would be preferable combination of a strong state and a well-functioning and supplementing its civil society. Premature curtailing of state functions, their artificial abolition or inability to carry out these functions are evidence of the state weakness. And excess of independence, lack of society control is evidence of society weakness. This problem is especially relevant for our country, because almost the entire history of Russia is full of facts of violent state’s attitude to people.