THE ELECTIVITY OF PUBLIC AUTHORITIES IN THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION AND THE RUSSIAN PRE-REVOLUTIONARY ELECTORAL QUALIFICATION SYSTEM

The subject. The article explores the principle of electivity as the principle of organization the public power in the Russian Empire, Soviet Russia and in the modern Russian Federation. The purpose of this paper is to show how the principle of electivity developed in the Russian Empire, Soviet Russia and in the modern Russian Federation and to demonstrate Russian qualification electoral system. The methodology. The author uses a dialectical method, a method of analysis and synthesis, a formal legal method, a comparative legal method. Results, scope of application. Qualification principle in electoral system has undergone various changes in various periods of Russian history. The Zemsky reform of 1864 and the Urban reform of 1870 are analyzed in context how they significantly expanded the electoral rights of citizens. The positive results of the reforms were minimized by the Urban and Zemsky counter-reforms of Emperor Alexander III. The author shows the negative consequences of the counter-reforms of Alexander III on the example of the second capital of the Russian Empire - Moscow. After the October Revolution, the electoral legislation included new elements of the censorship system that extended to the class enemies of the Soviet government. In general, during the Soviet period, general, equal, direct elections were declared in the Constitution. Separately post-Soviet electoral system in Moscow as the city of federal significance is examined. In the 1990s and 2000s the revival of the Russian electoral system was taking place. In addition, there is a transformation of the principle of election of bodies and officials of local self-government. The author comes to the conclusion that some elements of the census system in the modern interpretation remain in the current legislation. In fact, direct elections at different levels of government are replaced by indirect elections or the appointment of elected bodies and officials using a modern system of electoral qualifications, that directly contradict the Article 3 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation.


Introduction to the problem.
Electivity is the fundamental principle of the organization of public authority in Russia. On the basis of universal equal and direct suffrage by secret ballot people elect the President of the country, the State Duma, the highest officials of the subjects of the Russian Federation, regional representative bodies. The Constitution of the Russian Federation recognizes elections as the highest form of direct exercise by the peoples' power (Part 3, Article 3) and fixes the right of citizens to elect and be elected to bodies of state power and local self-government (Part 2, Article 32). Every citizen has the right to participate on an equal footing in the management of the affairs of the state and local self-government, either by direct expression of will in elections (active elective right) or by exercising the opportunity to be nominated in an established manner for election to an elected public office and the opportunity to be elected (passive elective right). Provision of election as the principle of the formation of the executive authorities of the Russian Federation is the object of attention and study in the scientific literature [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10].
In the opinion of the majority of specialists in the field of constitutional and municipal law, the principle of election of bodies and officials of local self-government at different historical stages was decisive and traditional not only for Russia but also for foreign countries with developed models of the organization of municipal power. According to the Chairman of the Constitutional Court V.D. Zorkin, "equal right to free elections is an outstanding achievement of the Russian society in recent decades" [11, p. 69]. M.V. Baglai argues that "civil society based on the pluralism of opinions and people's interests is not able to provide voluntary law-abiding citizens, avoid acute social explosions, and perhaps even bloody clashes, if the state authorities are not formed on a fair electoral basis with the participation of themselves same citizens" [12, p. 358].
According to B.A. Strashun, "local government is elected power. Elections legitimize the power of local self-government. This is one of the signs that distinguish local self-government from state power. Legitimation of public authorities is carried out not only through elections" [13, p. 319].

Pre-revolutionary Russian census electoral system.
As you know, the Russian pre-revolutionary pricing system is a serious achievement of Russian political and legal thought. Prior to the Great Reforms of Alexander II, active serfs were deprived of serfs (regardless of gender), who made up a large part of the population of the Empire, foreigners, people of Jewish nationality , women, men until they reached a certain age and property status. Elective law in the pre-reform period had an extremely narrow scope.
In the second half of the XIX century. following the peasant, zemstvo, city, judicial and other reforms, the formation of a system of electoral law in Russia begins and the empowerment of broad sections of the population with electoral rights. The Zemstvo reform of 1864 and the urban one in 1870 brought about significant changes in the Russian electoral law. Zemstvos, as bodies of local self-government, were formed with the participation of all classes of the then Russian society. The electoral system was based on the principle of elections by class. Voters were divided into three curiae: local landowners, peasant societies and townspeople owning real estate. The elections were indirect. The congresses of the representatives of each of the curiae elected an established number of vowels. The district zemstvo assemblies elected the vowels of the provincial zemstvo assembly. To participate in the election allowed to persons who have reached 25 years. Foreigners and persons convicted under a court sentence, under investigation or by a court could not participate in the elections. According to the city reform, an all-system system of city self-government was established. Elected bodies -city dumas -received significant rights in solving many issues of city life. Voters could be owners of commercial and industrial establishments, all those who had evidence of entrepreneurial activity and who paid taxes to the city treasury. They enjoyed the right to vote and various departments, institutions, societies, monasteries and churches that owned real estate in the city, represented by their representatives. Voters should have had Russian citizenship and an age of at least 25 years. Workers and artisans, all those who engaged in mental work and did not have real estate, were deprived of their voting rights.
All voters were divided into three curia: large, medium and small taxpayers. Each curia paid a third of city taxes and elected a third of the vowels. Voting was secret. Voting by proxy was allowed. Elected candidates were those who received more than half the votes in the elections. At the same time, the number of voters present at the meeting was to exceed the number of elected vowels.
Consider the establishment of the Russian electoral system by the example of the Moscow province.
Regulations on the application of the City Regulations of 1870 in Moscow were approved in 1872. In the same year, elections were held for a new composition of the Moscow City Duma in the number of 180 vowels (60 vowels from each of the three electoral categories). The term of the Duma was 4 years. As an executive body, instead of the Provisional Duma, the City Council was elected, while not only the vowels of the Duma, but also other persons entitled to vote in city elections, could be elected by its members. For Moscow, the number of members of the City Council was limited to six. In addition to them, the city council and its deputy (deputy) were members of the council. The right to vote was enjoyed by men of all classes under 25 years old years, Russian citizens who have a certain property qualification. Women could participate in elections only through trusted (for example, male relatives).
During the counter-reform period of Alexander III, the city government was subject to restrictions from all sides. The city rule adopted in that period (June 11, 1892) was in effect, with minor changes, up to 1917. It retained the main structure of self-government bodies -the City Duma, elected for 4 years (in Moscow it consisted of 160 vowels), and the City Council. With regard to the electoral rights of the citizens, this provision took another step back: although the electoral categories were abolished, but this was done only because they were unnecessary: the circle of voters was sharply narrowed, and the positions of the big bourgeoisie became even stronger. In Moscow, as a metropolitan city, they included only individuals and legal entities owning a property of high enough value (at least 3000 rubles), as well as merchants of the 1st guild. Thus, the category of Moscow taxpayers, such as tenants, has lost its suffrage, regardless of the cost of rented apartments. Thus, almost all urban intelligentsia could not take part in the elections. The composition of voters excluded merchants and homeowners of the Jewish faith, clergymen of Christian confessions, owners of wine shops and lodging houses, and a number of other categories of townspeople. As a result, the number of voters in Moscow decreased from 20 thousand to 7 thousand people, while the population of the city in the early 90-ies of the XIX century exceeded 900 thousand people.
All the important decisions of the City Duma had to be approved by the governor or the minister of the interior. This category included, in particular, decisions on questions of the city budget and overhead expenses, on the transfer of natural duties into monetary obligations, on the municipalization of enterprises, on the alienation of urban property, on loans and guarantees, on the amount of payment for the use of urban enterprises, on the planning of the city. In addition, the governor was entitled to suspend the implementation of the Duma resolution, if it sees "that it does not correspond to general state needs and needs, or clearly violates the interests of the local population." Suspended by the governor, the resolution was transferred from the provincial on city affairs to the Minister of the Interior, the Senate (in case of a complaint from the city administration), and in some cases to the Committee of Ministers and the State Council.
From the standpoint of the independence of city government, Moscow was in a rather disadvantageous situation as the second capital of the empire, which was of great political importance and was under the close attention of the central authorities. Unlike all other Russian cities in Moscow, in accordance with the City of 1892, the mayor was appointed by the emperor on the proposal of the Minister of Internal Affairs. The City Duma elected only two candidates for this post. Members of the Moscow City Council, as in other cities of the empire, were confirmed in office by the government administration: the Comrade of the City Head -the Minister of Internal Affairs, the other members -the Governor. All members of the City Council were considered state employees. They were not given the rank, but they enjoyed the same rights as the officials of the respective classes.
Since 1905, the history of the formation of electoral legislation in the nation-wide representative body of state power -the State Duma begins. The electoral system established by the Decree of December 11, 1905 "On Amending the Provision on Elections to the State Duma", was the most progressive in Russian history until 1917. But still it was limited. In the Russian electoral law, there were no such principles as universality and equality. Elections were indirect, multistage, had a class and censor character. The law established a high age limit: men who reached the age of 25 were allowed to participate in the elections. Women did not receive the right to vote, as did the servicemen, students, and people who led a nomadic way of life. Not allowed to the election and convicted of crimes and being under investigation, etc. They could not participate officials -governors and vice-governors and others, as well as police officers. To participate in elections, a property qualification was established, which did not allow them to enter into significant sections of society, for example, workers. All persons who received voting rights were divided into several curia, which were placed in different conditions. In the largest cities of the country, the elections were two-stage, in the provinces three-level. A four-stage election system was established for the peasants. The different quality of the stages of the election process led to the fact that electors from the curia represented a different number of voters. So in the landowning curia (landlords), one elector represented 2,000 voters, in the urban -7,000, in the peasant -30,000, in the working class -90,000.
The February Revolution of 1917 marked the beginning of a new stage in the history of Russian electoral law and, although this stage did not last long, was a large-scale phenomenon for Russia. On the basis of the adopted legal acts regulating electoral practice, the organs of zemstvo and city self-government were democratically elected and elections to the All-Russian Constituent Assembly were held. May 27, 1917 were issued "Provisional rules on the election of provincial and district zemstvo vowels, " the resolution " On rural municipality management". Estate and property restrictions were abolished. Elections have become universal, equal and direct with secret ballot. Russian citizens of both sexes of all nationalities and faiths of confession, who reached the age of 20, were vested with active suffrage .
On October 2, 1917, the Provisional Government approved the "Regulations on Elections to the Constituent Assembly". The new law was consistent with the level of advanced electoral laws of its time. The introduction of a system of elections on the lists put forward by political parties was envisaged. For the first time in Russia, the qualifications were abolished: property, literacy, residency, and restrictions on national and religious grounds. The composition of voters was expanding -the right to vote was granted to women, servicemen. The minimum age for participation in elections was set at 20 years. The right to participate in elections was deprived of the deaf, insane, under guardianship, convicted by the court, insolvent debtors, desert servicemen, members of the royal family. Thus, the electoral legislation of the period of the democratic republic in Russia was the most developed sub-sector of the legislation. On its basis on November 12, 1917, the Constituent Assembly was elected, which existed, of course, for a short time.
On the basis of universal suffrage and a proportional system, elections were held in June 1917 to the Moscow City Duma, which brought the success of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party. In September of that year, for the first time, Moscow's district Duma elections were held, in which the Bolshevik Party won the majority. Behind Lenin's loud statements about a new genuine proletarian democracy was the rejection of universal suffrage and the introduction of a census right into the Soviet electoral system. What features were characteristic of Soviet qualifications in 1918? The voting age was lowered to 18 years of age, citizenship canceled qualifications, gender and property qualifications were abolished. From the cancellation or reduction of these qualifications, the most discriminated in Russia's prerevolutionary strata -the youth, women, national minoritiesbenefited. Having granted them electoral rights, the Bolsheviks attracted to their side an active, young section of the population who had not previously realized their political activity in the legal field. In this case, we must admit that this was a break both with pre-revolutionary Russian traditions and with the world experience. At the same time, security qualifications continued to operate within the Soviet electoral system, including political and labor qualifications. The political qualification was not original, in many electoral systems it operated and continues to operate. For Russia, the use of this qualification was also traditional. In 1918, with the help of political qualifications, employees and agents of the former police, a special corps of gendarmes and the security department, as well as members of the reigning house, were removed from the election. Subsequently, in the Soviet electoral regulations, the number of categories covered by this qualification was significantly expanded at the expense of former white officers, military officials of the White armies, administrative exiles and even family members of persons deprived of voting rights, etc. In addition to the use of the law of censuses, the Bolsheviks introduced an indirect and unequal representation in the elections to the Soviets. The Constitution of the RSFSR of 1918 provided for a fivefold advantage of the urban population over rural when convening both regional and provincial congresses of Soviets and the All-Russian Congress of Soviets The Constitution of the RSFSR of 1937 in full accordance with the prescriptions of the Constitution of the USSR in 1936 proclaimed universal, equal, direct elections with the secret ballot of citizens of the RSFSR. Active and passive suffrage were not lunatic and those convicted by the court with deprivation of electoral rights (Article 139). Elections of deputies were equal: each citizen had one vote. All citizens participated in elections on an equal footing. This was ensured by securing in the Constitution of the RSFSR in 1937 the norms of representation in the implementation of passive electoral rights to all levels of the councils. So, the norm of representation on elections of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR was one deputy from 150 thousand population (Article 25). The norm of representation in the Council s of Moscow and Leningrad -one deputy from 3000 population (Article 145). Deputies of all levels of councils, from the rural to the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR, were elected through direct elections. For the first time in the Soviet Constitution, a secret ballot was established in the election of deputies, which was at least formal, but still a guarantee of the implementation of passive suffrage.
Constitution of the RSFSR, 1978 for the first time contained a separate chapter 12, entitled "People's Deputy", in which the most significant, cardinal provisions were fixed, which fixed the basis for the legal status of the deputy. The election of deputies was regulated by Chapter 11 of the Constitution of the RSFSR "Electoral System". Chapter 11 of the Constitution of the RSFSR in 1978 enshrined the ownership of active and passive electoral rights to Russian citizens who reached the age of 18 (Article 92). Thus, the same age qualification was established for passive suffrage in all representative bodies of state power. The Constitution established the qualification of health: they did not participate in elections, that is, both active and passive elective rights were abolished, persons recognized as insane in accordance with the law (Article 92). Thus, the 1978 Constitution of the RSFSR did not contain a provision on the deprivation of the passive electoral right of persons in prison. The right to nominate candidates for deputies belonged to the organizations of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, trade unions, the All-Union Leninist Communist Youth Union, cooperative and other public organizations, labor collectives, as well as meetings of servicemen for military units.
The Soviet system of organization of power in the provinces, called the executive council, is of great interest. On the basis of direct suffrage, Soviets of People's Deputies were formed. The Council from among its members formed the Executive Committee, which was the executive and administrative body, and submitted to the Council and the higher Executive Committee (the system of "double subordination"). And already the Executive Committee from among its members elected the Chairman of the Executive Committee. Such an electoral system effectively excluded the chairmanship of the Executive Committee from becoming an incompetent or casual person, since the candidate, in fact, passed a triple selection.
The period from 1989 to 1993 was marked by the drafting of a number of drafts of the new Constitution of Russia, until the adoption of which by popular vote on December 12, 1993, a number of changes were made to the Constitution of the RSFSR of 1978, including Chapter 11 "The Electoral System " . In addition, the elections of people's deputies were governed by two laws passed on October 27, 1989: the Law of the RSFSR "On the Elections of People's Deputies of the RSFSR" and the Law of the RSFSR "On Elections of People's Deputies of Local Soviets of People's Deputies of the RSFSR". Thus, Article 92 was amended to restrict passive electoral rights for certain categories of officials.

Post-Soviet and electoral system in the city of federal significance Moscow
The  10.1999 No. 184-FZ "On the general principles of the organization of legislative (representative) and executive bodies of state power of the subjects of the Russian Federation" establishes a barrier for self-nominees and nominees from the political party to the post of the highest official of the subject of the Russian Federation: their candidacies should be supported by 5 to 10% of deputies of representative bodies of municipalities and (or) heads of municipal entities of the Russian Federation elected in municipal elections. If a federal political party, which may include deputies of representative bodies of municipalities and (or) elected heads of municipal entities of a constituent entity of the Russian Federation, is likely to make no big problems collecting the necessary number of votes in support of its candidate, then for self-nominees this can be an unattainable obstacle for reasons beyond their control. Moreover, as we noted above on a related issue, there is no justification for the situation, at which municipal deputies as carriers of local authorities that do not belong to the state, get the right to influence the admission of citizens to the public position of the subject of the Russian Federation.
In accordance with part 1 of Art. 79 of the Federal Law of 06. 10.2003 No. 131-FZ "On the general principles of the organization of local government in the Russian Federation" (hereinafter referred to as Federal Law No. 131-FZ) in cities of federal significance in accordance with the charters of the said subjects of the Russian Federation, local selfgovernment is exercised by local self-government bodies in the inner-city territories. In acc. with paragraph 2 of Art. 40 Charter of the city of Moscow. The mayor of Moscow is elected for a period of five years by the residents of the city of Moscow on the basis of universal equal and direct suffrage by secret ballot.
Local self-government in the city of Moscow is carried out within the boundaries of intramunicipal municipalities established in accordance with federal legislation and laws of the city of Moscow.

Transformation of the principle of election of bodies and officials of local selfgovernment.
In acc. with Part 2 of Art. 36 of the Federal Law No. 131-FZ, the head of the municipality is elected in municipal elections, or the representative body of the municipality from its membership, or the representative body of the municipality from among the candidates represented by the competitive commission by the results of the competition. As has been shown by modern practice, a significant number of city municipalities in the city of Moscow refused to directly elect their head of the municipal formation, preferring to elect him a representative body of the municipal formation from among their members, or a representative body of the municipal entity from among the candidates represented by the tender commission by the results of the competition.
The head of the municipal entity, elected directly by the population, receives the mandate of trust precisely from the population, and the responsibility bears before him. The head of the municipal formation, elected from the representative body, is more dependent on the representative body of the municipal formation that elected him. Apparently, due to the fact that the leader-cabinet model is democratic in its legal nature, to date, only five subjects of the Russian Federation have chosen this model for their administrative centers. The main thing is that in the legislation and in practice the provisions of Part 1 of Art. 130 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, according to which the structure of local self-government bodies is determined by the population independently, and not in an imperative order is established by the law of the subject of the Russian Federation. As rightly noted in the literature, the abolition of direct elections for head of the municipality is politically motivated and aimed at suppressing the autonomy of municipalities, increasing their subordination to public authorities [ 1 4 , p. 62; 1 5 , p. 69; 1 6 , p.50].
In addition, as the Commissioner for Human Rights in the Russian Federation correctly noted: "Elections are not just a combination of legal procedures, but also historical lessons in which society acquires experience of influencing decision-making and, most importantly, a culture of management".
Conclusions. The selectivity is a cross -cutting principle, as a result of which public authorities and officials are empowered. However, in fact the concept of electivity as a form of direct expression of the will of citizens is replaced by indirect elections or the appointment of elected bodies and officials using a modern system of electoral qualifications, which directly contradicts Article 3 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation.