The Concept of the «People» in Constitutional Law Rules

Abstract

The paper provides for the definition of the concept of «the people» and the main concepts underpinning this definition. Through the lens of the definition of «the people», it is understood as a population, namely an ethnic group residing in a specific territory, the category of «electorate» as a political community and the role of voters during elections as participants in constitutional (and electoral) legal relationships. According to domestic principles of the constitutional order, the people, as the source of public authority in the country, legitimizes and formalizes its functioning and the direction of state policy. The significance of the Russian people in strengthening the foundations of Russian statehood is substantiated not only by the provisions consti tutionally enshrined in the preamble and the foundations of the constitutional order, which emphasize the key role of the multinational populace in ensuring the sovereign statehood of the nation throughout its historical development, but also by the formal (i.e., legal) recognition in the National Security Strategy, where the full implementa tion of constitutional rights and freedoms, as well as a decent life style for Russian citizens, is declared as one of its core principles.