The Will of the People in the Paradigm of Constitutional Law

The article scrutinizes the will of the people as an integral part of modern democracy, as one of the foundations of the constitutional order. While not denying the possibility to analyze the concept of the "will" in psychological, historical and other discourses, the author concludes that in the legal context its meaning is modified and supplemented with new features. Today this phenomenon is dealt with by various branches of jurisprudence, and constitutional law is no exception. Analyzing the diversity of approaches to the definition of "the will of the people (volya naroda)" existing in the legal science, the author concludes that the will of the people is its exclusive property as a subject of relations within the framework of constitutional law. Given that the multinational people represent a complex political institution, its will is formed by means of the merger of its constituent elements into a single unit which has never existed before. The author makes analysis based on the constitutional law enshrining such concepts as "expression of the will of the people" and "the will of the people" in accordance withr constitutional law. The author differentiates the content of the named definitions and concludes that they are not identical. Expression of the will of the people is a form of expression of the will of the people in objective reality when it becomes available for the perception of other subjects of the relations regulated by constitutional law. The paper examines the forms of expression of the will of the people and the objects at which it can be aimed. Expressions can amount to both active and passive activities. The author concludes that the implementation of these forms can be both positive and negative. According to the author, a functional purpose of the will of the people is revealed in its objects. Based on the fact that the will of the people is absolute, the author formulates the statement concerning its orientation at an indefinite number of objects and phenomena of the existing reality. The external expression of the will of the people can manifest itself in its attitude to the State and society, and can be aimed at other subjects of relations regulated by constitutional law. Manifestation of the will of the people towards the State is carried out in a wide variety of public relations connected with: the State foundation, the formation of the system of public authorities, implementation of governmental functions.

will, expression of the will of the people, expression of the will of the citizens, the people, the multinational people, rule of the people, democracy, political system of the society, state representative bodies

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