E-Democracy: A Constitutional Dimension
Abstract
The paper is focused at the issues of e-democracy in Russia as an innovative form of democracy regarded from the constitutional dimension. The effects of IT penetration to change the appearance, content and methods of legal impact on the environment subject to change are discussed. Due to peculiarities unique to constitutional law and its exceptional role as the legal system backbone, digitization has a special effect on this form of regulation. The evidence in favour of the joint competence of the federal and regional authorities over the issues of information and IT technologies based on constitutional realities is presented. It is argued that e-democracy viewed from the constitutional dimension is above all subject to constitutional regulation. As an instrument of democratic rule politically based on the constitutional imperative of overall empowerment of the people, e-democracy is legitimately part and parcel of constitutional law relying on the relationships between democracy and popular sovereignty. Moreover, popular sovereignty, like other types of sovereignty such as the national sovereignty, is an extension of personal sovereignty as a set of inherent, inalienable human and civil rights and liberties safeguarded by the state. The rights including their digital expression make up a traditional and meaningful subject of constitutional regulation. These are primarily the rights to be exercised in whole or for the most part in terms of digital indicators defining the digital status of each person as predated by the constitutional principle of equality that means digital equality of access to IT technologies for all. These rights primarily embrace the constitutional right to information which is guaranteed to all and which includes the freedom to search for, receive, transmit, produce and disseminate information in any legitimate way (part 4 Article 29 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation). Along with constitutional law, e-democracy is subject to information law as a set of provisions governing social relationships in the sphere of information. It is stated that information law is based on constitutional premises characterizing the principles of Russia’s constitutional system.
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