Does this sound similar to what "Fundamentally Change America" is becoming?
Summary of the Russian Constitution:
Based on Nystén-Haarala, Soili: Russian Law in Transition: Law and Institutional Change. Helsinki: Aleksanteri Institute (Kikimora Publications), 2001.
The present Constitution of the Russian Federation from 1993 is a result of the power struggle between President Yeltsin and the Parliament. Yeltsin broke the political deadlock by dissolving the Parliament in September 1993. Whether the President had the right to dissolve the Parliament is still a disputed issue among Russian lawyers. However, from a purely legal point of view, dissolving the organ, which according to the constitution was the Sovereign, was actually a presidential
coup d'etat which lead to an armed conflict. Some of the deputies refused to leave their posts and found armed forces to defend them. Yeltsin again won this struggle and the armed forces stormed the parliament building, the so-called White House in October 1993.
Elections for a new Federal Assembly were announced for December 1993, and a new presidential constitution was drawn up. The reformers, however, lost the elections and failed to win a majority in the new parliament. The peace between the executive and legislative branches was an uneasy one. As a result of the fight, the executive rule strengthened.
The Constitution, which had been drafted under the Presidential Administration, was accepted in a referendum on 12 December 1993. The citizens were asked whether they accepted the Constitution or not. Textbooks of constitutional law explain that the referendum was considered to be the most democratic way to accept the constitution. The reason for using a referendum, however, was that President Yeltsin could not push his constitution through in the Supreme Soviet in a parliamentary procedure.
The text of the Constitution was not officially published until 9 November 1993. The citizens had a month to become acquainted with the Constitution. There was no time for wide democratic discussions. It is not difficult to agree that, in spite of the formally democratic way that the Constitution was introduced - via a referendum - its legitimacy is rather low. It hardly received the needed support from the citizens, who could not have been well informed about the contents of the basic legal document that they were asked to support. Besides, they were unsure whether a constitution mattered at all.
The referendum formally legalised the Constitution. Since the citizens were only formally drawn into the process, the Constitution cannot be called a "Social Contract" of a new society, unless it is accepted that a social contract can be forced upon the citizens. However, the idea of a social contract itself, along with the other ideals of the Enlightenment, which constitute the foundation of existing European and North American constitutions, were neither born in a democratic process nor without bloodshed.
Legislative power in the Russian Federation belongs mainly to the Parliament, that is, the Federal Assembly, which has two chambers: the Federal Council and the State Duma. The President is the Head of the executive power, but also has important legislative and nomination powers. The Government works under the President and is responsible both to him and the State Duma. The President can dismiss the Government, but he can also dissolve the State Duma if he disagrees when it gives a vote of no confidence in the Government. Modern judicial control also exists in Russia. The Constitutional Court is the judicial organ, which can resolve disputes between federal state organs as well as federal and regional organs, and consider the consistency of legal norms with the Constitution. The Court can also examines the constitutionality of laws in a concrete case, upon the request of individual citizens.
The Presidential nature of the Russian Constitution is clearly a result of the power struggle, which the president won. Strong presidential power seems to be quite typical for young and unstable democracies.
The President appoints the head of the Government with the consent of the State Duma. The President chooses a candidate and presents him or her to the Duma, which can either accept or reject the candidate within one week. If the Duma does not accept the candidate, the president must make another proposition. If the Duma disapproves the candidate three times, the President can order new parliamentary elections.
This system enables a fast nomination of the Prime Minister. The threat of premature elections is a strong weapon in making the Duma agree with the president. The first commentary to the Constitution explains that this provision is to make sure that the parliament and the president agree on the candidate.
The President appoints the ministers, upon the proposal of the chairman of the Government. There is no such practice that the Government should represent the majority of the Parliament. In fact, it seems that it is personal relations that count most. The President can also preside at sessions of the Government; as well as overrule government decrees. According to the Constitution, the President is entitled to dismiss the Government, even in the absence of a lack of confidence from the Federal Assembly.
Also the Duma has the parliamentary right to dismiss the Government by giving a vote of no confidence. However, in such situations, the President has the right to dismiss the Duma if he disagrees with its lack of confidence. Such a provision reduces parliamentarism to a minimum and the role of the government to a tool of the president.
The President of Russia is considered to be the head of both the executive branch and the institution to check the balances between federal organs, as well as between federal and regional organs. Furthermore, the President is the main overseer of human rights.
The power given to the President in the Constitution is vested in his power to issue decrees, in the absence of laws, which in turn is connected with his right to refuse to sign a new law adopted by the Parliament. In the Russian legal environment, with great gaps in legislation, these presidential powers have played an even more significant role in practice. Yeltsin's power was only partly based on the Constitution. His authoritarian Soviet party leader mentality allowed him to exceed the Constitution.
The Constitution of the Russian Federation of 1993 technically contains all the bricks needed to build constitutionalism. The separation of powers between the state organs is established, as well as a judicial body to guard the Constitution. The newly-gained independence of the courts is an important prerequisite for developing the rule of law. There is, however, an institutional set-up hindering this development. The political culture still has a long way to develop to reach the stage of constitutionalism.
The Constitutional Court plays an important role in interpreting the unclear and inconvenient rules of the constitution. It has concentrated on the questions concerning the separation of powers and has become drawn into the power struggle. After being defeated and losing its reputation, the renewed Constitutional court has endeavoured to avoid interfering in politics and has concentrated more on clarifying technical regulations and has been very cautious with the President.
- Article26: establishes the right to use mother tongue languages and the freedom to choose the language of communication, education, learning and creativity;
- Article29: guarantees freedom of thought and speech, of legal search, production and dissemination of information including mass information, and bans censorship;
- Article44: guarantees freedom of creativity, cultural access, rights to participate in cultural life and to use cultural institutions, and protects intellectual property. It also claims the preservation of historic and cultural heritage and monuments as a civil duty;
- Article68: establishes Russian as a state language all over the national territory and gives to Republics within Russia the right to establish their own official languages to be used together with Russian;
- Article69: the Russian Federation also guarantees the rights of indigenous peoples according to norms and principles of international law.
Sounds like they are becoming more like the good old USA and we are going to the old USSR.
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one of the basic tenants of marxism is the forced redistribution of wealth. this president want to force redistribution of wealth on a large scale in this country, and his policies bear this out.
