Novelties of the Soviet Constitutionalism: The Principle of Unity of Powers

ABSTRACT

The paper’s purpose is to analyze the provisions of the first Soviet Constitution in terms of the relationship between the legislative and executive political institutions, and to examine whether and to what extent the principle of unity of powers had been prescribed. The analysis is based on the legal method, since the competences and the relationship of legislative and executive institutions had been explicitly prescribed by the Constitution. It also contains an analysis of the theoretical approach of the Marxist theoreticians to the system of government. The conclusion is that the Constitution of the Russian Socialist Federal Soviet Republic prescribed the principle of democratic unity of powers, and the system of assembly government, which had been based on the superiority of the representative body over the executive. However, it had not been a “clear” system of assembly government, since the executive (Sovnarkom [the Soviet of People’s Commissars]) had some important competences. Although the leading theoreticians of the new regime had not envisaged this possibility, it occurred as the result of the extraordinary circumstances caused by the civil war, as well as of the fact that the Marxist theory on the new system of government had not been developed in all its aspects.

KEYWORDS:

• Separation and unity of powers
• assembly government
• legislative and executive political institutions
• Soviet Constitution
• Constitution of the Russian Socialist Federal Soviet Republic

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on Contributor

Goran Marković is an associate professor of constitutional law at the Faculty of Law, University of East Sarajevo. He has published two books, and he is a co-author of one textbook on the constitutional law of Bosnia and Herzegovina. He has published more than 70 scientific articles, and participated at more than 40 scientific conferences. He is a member of the editorial boards of three academic journals (The Yearbook of the Faculty of Law in East Sarajevo, Central and Eastern European Legal Studies in Athens, and the Journal of Contemporary Central and Eastern Europe in London). He is a member of the Board of Directors of the European Public Law Organization in Athens. He is also the editor of New Flame, which is an online journal.

Notes

1. The whole content of this version could be found in www.marxists.org (https://www.marxists.org/history/ussr/government/constitution/1918/index.htm).