Constituent power in constitutional development and public communication: comparative aspects of constitutional change
https://doi.org/10.52468/2542-1514.2025.9(4).47-57
Abstract
The subject. This article identifies the nature and origin of constituent power, reveals the communicative nature of constituent power, the need to engage citizens, experts, and civil society institutions in the process of democratic constitution-making, and the historical, social, and legal foundations of generative public power, creating and transforming constitutions and legal order, using the examples of France and Russia.
The aim of the article is to explore the theoretical foundations and history of the constituent assembly and constituent constitutionalism in Russia, as well as the international debate on the purpose and active use of constituent power in modern democratic states.
Methodology. The article used hermeneutic and epistemological approaches, methods of formal-legal, concrete-historical, comparative constitutional-legal and complex analysis.
Main results, scope of application. The author examines the problem of popular power as the source and creator of constituent power, the origin of the word and concept of "constituent power" the role of Abbé E.J. Sieyès in conceptualizing constituent power, and the practical application of this concept and the institution of the national constituent assembly in French revolutionary constitutionalism and in Russia in the early 20th century during the three Russian revolutions. Originally reflecting the French constitutional-revolutionary experience, the word "constituent power" subsequently acquired a broader meaning and was and still is used to describe the institutional exercise of constituent power. This short term refers to various types of citizens' assemblies that are granted the right to draft and adopt constitutions (constitutional conventions, constituent assemblies, constitutional conventions, and other popular assemblies with constituent power).
Conclusions. In Russian, this foreign word began to be used due to the widespread use of French in the upper echelons of society and at the imperial court as early as the 19th century. Scholarly works and dictionaries of foreign words confirm that the word "constituent" became firmly established in the Russian language in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The experience of European states in the first quarter of the 21st century demonstrates, on the one hand, a critical rethinking of liberal constitutionalism, centered in Europe and the USA, as well as a discussion of the prospects for creating a polycentric model of constitutionalism. On the other hand, the expansion of the social basis of constituent power using citizens' assemblies and mini-publics, deliberative instruments for constitution-making, and the adoption of constitutional amendments. The Russian experience with the adoption of the 1993 Russian Constitution and the 2020 constitutional reform demonstrates the transformation of constituent constitutionalism toward a strengthening of presidentialism and its role in the exercise of constituent power.
Keywords
Constituent power,
constituent,
deliberative constitutionalism,
constitutional change,
popular sovereignty,
constituent
Supporting agencies: The reported study was funded by Russian Science Foundation according to the research project No 23-28-00627, https://rscf.ru/en/project/23-28-00627/ (“Communicative constitutionalism and constitutional mobilization: the problem of deliberative participation in the public and information space and the transformation of the public power system (concepts, norms and institutional mechanisms)”).
About the Author
I. A. Kravets
Novosibirsk State University
Россия
Россия
Igor A. Kravets – Doctor of Law, Professor; Head, Department of Constitutional and Municipal Law; Chief Researcher, Institute of Philosophy and Law
2, Pirogova ul., Novosibirsk, 630090
ResearcherID: N-9219-2015
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Kravets I.A. Constituent power in constitutional development and public communication: comparative aspects of constitutional change. Law Enforcement Review. 2025;9(4):47-57. https://doi.org/10.52468/2542-1514.2025.9(4).47-57
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