Abstract

The work examines the impact of the power vertical established during Vladimir Putin’s presidency on legal decision-making and the way of interaction between authorities and society. The process of building and strengthening the institutions of the power vertical in Russia resulted in establishment of political and economic control of the federal center over the regions. This process also caused strengthening the role of the executive bodies and limiting the role of representative bodies at both federal and regional levels. By taking all the foregoing into account, within the work the concept of the power vertical includes not only hierarchically organized institutions of the executive power (executive vertical) but also legislative power institutions (parliament vertical). The analysis conducted within the research on contemporary political and party system of Russia has shown that nowadays legislative bodies are in fact incorporated in the executive vertical and play the role of administrative mechanism legitimating decisions of the executive authorities. The survey is comprised of the analysis of statistical data (with a focus on implementation of the power of legislative initiative by the empowered subjects of legislative initiative in Russia for 1996-2008) and the expert poll data. The participants of the expert poll have been asked to estimate contemporary development trends of Russia’s political and party system and the mechanisms of interaction between power institutions and the society. The expert panel included representatives of executive and legislative branches of power at various levels, municipal bodies, and scientific communities. The results of the research were presented at the All-Russia Scientific Conference “Political and party system in modern Russia” held on October 2, 2009, in the Russian Academy of Sciences.