Constitutionalism: Problems of Methodology

The article examines the reasons for a variety in the interpretation of constitutionalism in Russian legal literature. The author divides the views into preliminary and current. The former relate to the lack of democratic constitutional traditions in this country and of studies on the Russian constitutionalism at the time of the USSR collapse. The latter group covers the methodology of the issue: linguistic and of culture and history. The author suggests one of the material reasons for the lack of unanimity on constitutionalism is the polysemy of the underlying concept of constitution. On the other hand, constitutionalism is often identified with a proper architecture of state power and the criterion for propriety is understood in a variety of ways. The architecture implying that the power should follow a certain supreme law (idea) should be considered as a way of its legitimacy. The article considers incorrect the use of the concept of constitutionalism to define the models f power having existed many centuries or even millennia before it. However, the history of English constitutionalism confirms the possibility to widen its structure at the expense of certain feudal institutions which modified the trajectory and form of this branch. The paper shows five periods of constitutionalism. Only the first of them (until 1917) does not exceed the limits of European political and legal culture in terms of social and cultural differences between the countries where constitutionalism has been shaped. In Soviet Russia another constitutionalism was being formed as it opposed all the previous models. After WW2 (3'd period)the International Bill of Human Rights was approved which is implemented in many countries, universal and municipal international mechanisms are being created. Constitutionalism exceeds national borders and acquires the features of an international structure. The fourth period is associated with the proclamation of independence of the former colonies in Asia and Africa. Remaining obsolete pre bourgeois relations impede the competency of constitutionalism. The fifth period started after the USSR collapse and is characterized with the inconsistency of democratic principles in the constitutions and the institutions to social and cultural environment of emerging post-soviet states.