The Essence of Popular Sovereignty in the Concepts of «Strong» Democracy and Symbiotic Popular Rule

The relevance of the topic is due to the uncertainty in the fundamental justification of the constitutionallegal concept of popular sovereignty, reinforced by the popularization of the idea of «strong» democracy and the expansive understanding of state-legal influence on the formation of the popular will. The author examines the basic provisions of the Constitution of the Russian Federation and contemporary theoretical problems in determining the bearer of popular sovereignty in the doctrinal approaches of constitutional law. The application of systemic, formal-legal and comparative-legal methods allowed for the study of the constructive features of popular sovereignty, including in the context of the constitutional-legal doctrine of public authority. The paper provides an objective analysis of the approach according to which the state mechanism is endowed with the right to stimulate the development of democratic institutions and to compensate for the insufficient political activity of citizens. The author concludes that endowing the state with the ability to determine the forms and limits of popular will expression, in essence, transforms popular rule from a foundation of the constitutional order into a truncated concept of popular participation. As an alternative approach, the author proposes a symbiotic model of popular rule, in which the cumulative formation of the popular will is carried out through the activity of initiative groups, territorial public self-government and local communities. The role of the state in this model consists in creating constitutional-legal guarantees for the independent activity of local communities, refraining from interference in the substantive side of the formation of the will of the people. It is noted that state stimulation of «necessary» forms of participation should be excluded, otherwise it will lead to the risk of «phantom» popular rule.