Constitutional Foundations of the Welfare State in the Context of the 2020 Constitutional Reform

The proclamation of Russia as a social state in Article 7 of the Constitution prior to the constitutional reform of 2020 was not filled with real legal content. This gave rise to scientific ideas about the dismantling of the concept of the welfare state and, subsequently, a social demand for changes in the interaction of the state and society. The goals of economic development relevant to modern Russia are unattainable without changing the constitutional order of the activities of public authorities at all levels. At the same time, their implementation is impossible in the absence of public support. In the course of the Reform, a number of new legal safeguards were created, the duties of the state in terms of improving the welfare of the population were established, and the responsible attitude of public authorities to their implementation was provided. This ensured constitutional initiatives with the support of voters, and the procedure of the all-Russian vote gave the people’s will the appearance of a final decision approved by society as a whole. The purpose of the study is to provide the legal assessment of constitutional development in conjunction with the establishment of a list of social guarantees demanded by Russian citizens. On the basis of generally accepted scientific methods, the paper analyzes the key social initiatives that emerged during the Constitutional Reform and the provisions of legislation adopted to improve the standard of living. Particular attention is paid to assessing the effectiveness of political and legal decisions in the context of countering the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the economic development of the country. The paper explains the role of the head of the state as a generator of constitutional and legal ideas that ensured the transformation of relations within the constitutional mechanism of separation of powers and laid the basis for a new socio-economic strategy for the development of the Russian state.

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