Constitutional judicial control in the mechanism of legal protection of the political competition in Russia

Abstract

This article analyzes the place of constitutional judicial control in the system of measures for protection and maintenance of the political competition in Russia. The central place is devoted to the principle of separation of powers and its underlying system of checks and balances. The main obstacles to the development of political competition are defects in the separation of powers, which create limitations on maintaining the required balance in the political arena. Possibility of the influence of the Constitutional Court of Russia on the political market predetermines its status as the most important guarantor of political competition. The author concludes that nowadays the role of judicial constitutional control in maintaining of the political competition is significantly limited, which is caused by problems in the constitutional construction of power and, as follows from the analysis of judicial practice, the lack of consistency in the understanding of the phenomenon of political competition by the Constitutional Court of Russia and relevant legal measures for its protection.