ON THE WAY TO THE RULE OF LAW: TRANSFORMATION, REFORM, AND MODERNIZATION

The article deals with the role of various processes of changes in the political systems that contribute into a coherent and managed transition to the rule of law. It is concluded that the process of transformation does not amount to the purposeful reform of public institutions, but a more complex and less studied process of changing the social order, because it includes a key characteristic of the reform which is implemented by the public authorities in a number of areas of social life in accordance with the legislation. When transformation is taking place, the problem of uncertainty of results comes to the fore. This suggests that serious political difficulties emerged that appeared in Russia during the transition period. The results of the transformation process in modern Russia are tracked on the ground of a variety of reasons: changes were compared with both promulgated ideas of the reformers and pre-reform indicators. Further differences appear in explaining patterns and mechanisms of the transformation process, inevitability and creativity of its results. The transformation approach insists on the fact that the state legal system possesses its own laws of development that do not depend on the will and the objectives of the State mechanism. We have to admit that failures in the implementation of Russian reform are quite logical. The changes were of an individual nature, because they did involve essential institutional nuclear of the political system. Thus, the article aims to answer the following questions: how to make the process of transition to the rule of law consistent and manageable; whether the process of transformation is completed or has not taken place at all in modern Russia; what is the role of reforming and modernization for the foundations of the rule-of-law state? The author develops the model of public law environment that shows the most acceptable vector of transition to the rule-of-law state analyzing such factors as institutionalization, political regimes, their consolidation, and building of a nation. The author identifies the advantages and disadvantages of a process of changes (reform, modernization, transformation), depending on their ability of forming correct directions to the rule-of-law state.

transformation, rule-of-law state, democracy, modernization, reforming, authoritarianism, institutionalization, building of a nation, transition vector, model

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