Some aspects of guaranteeing people’s trust by institutions of direct democracy

Introduction. Constitutional law uses such institutions of direct democracy as referendum and plebiscite for the public law-making and resolution of issues of public importance. The institutions of direct and representative democracy cannot be opposed, but are designed to mutually complement each other. Methods. The methodological basis of the study was a set of methods of scientific cognition: comparative-legal, historical-legal, complex analysis, comparison and generalisation. Results. The author proposes to introduce the term “consultative people’s vote” into scientific turnover and legislative practice, which can be used as an alternative to a referendum. Referendum, plebiscite and consultative people’s vote can be used to express people’s trust or distrust in the authorities, since the problem of trust (or the emergence of doubt in trust) is one of the key issues in their organisation. Especially in the conditions of insufficient interparty competition, their importance as a form of expressing citizens’ trust in the political course and personalities of political leaders increases commensurately. Taking into account different points of view, the author gives in the article his own definition of these terms and defines the criteria that enable to distinguish these very close concepts, as well as subjects to theoretical analysis the possibility of restrictions on the permissible issues to be submitted for referendum (in terms of state personnel policy).