The imperative and free mandate of a deputy: issues of typologization in a comparative legal context

Abstract

Background. The relevance of the research topic is determined by its scientific, theoretical and practical significance. The article presents the criteria for typologizing the legal category “deputy’s mandate” from a political and legal perspective and defines the dialectic of interaction between the imperative and the free mandate of a deputy. The purpose of the study is a comprehensive comparative legal analysis of the parliamentary mandate as an institution of direct democracy in the context of globalization and postmodern transformations of the modern world. Materials and methods. The achievement of the re-search goal became possible through the use of a number of methods, including philosophical, general scientific and special legal methods. Thus, the dialectical method made it possible to trace the genesis of the subject of research in its interrelation and interdependence with other phenomena of the state-legal order, to determine the prospect of its further reform. With the help of general scientific methods, it was possible to achieve unity of research mindset. Special legal methods of cognition were also used: formal legal and comparative legal, the latter involving both diachronic and synchronous comparison. Results. The problem of the dialectic of imperative and free mandate is not exclusively a domestic invention, it is also characteristic of the foreign practice of constitutional construction. A typologization of the deputy’s mandate and its substantive aspects is carried out in a comparative legal manner. Conclusions. In modern conditions of postmodern development of states, the absolutization of the free mandate of a deputy has distorted the democratic mechanism of democracy, undermining popular confidence in the parliamentary corps. At the same time, the imperative institutions of direct democracy not only form a mecha-nism for the implementation of national sovereignty, but also ensure transparency in the interaction between voters and the deputy corps, which increases confidence in the latter and demonstrates its effectiveness.