The Federal Assembly is an authority endowed with legislative initiative. It is a structure representing the interests of the multinational population of the country. In the article, we consider in more detail what the Federal Assembly is, what are its features.
General information
Article 95 of the Constitution establishes the composition of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation. The Federation Council and the State Duma are, respectively, the upper and lower houses of the FS.
The parliament is called upon to exercise sovereignty, to express the will, interests of the population, and reflect the opinion of the country's regions.
Representative character
When considering the formation of the chambers of parliament, special attention should be paid to the election of deputies. The Federal Assembly is attended by representatives of different nations, nationalities, groups residing in the state, people of various professions, and bearers of diverse religious and ideological views.
Elections to the State Duma are popular, which ensures reflection in its work of various political views, needs, interests of different social strata, political pluralism and ideological diversity.
The composition of the chambers reflects to a certain extent the demographic structure. Currently, men and women, people of different ages are becoming deputies. The Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation contains citizens to whom the population has expressed confidence.
Common tasks
The legislation regulates the legal status of the Federal Assembly. What is the legal status of the FS? It reflects the principles of the separation of powers into legislative, judicial and executive. The first is precisely the Federal Assembly.
What is the legislative power, many know. The structures included in it are responsible for the adoption of legal acts. The powers of the FS just include the approval of various laws, including on the federal budget. In addition, the representative body also exercises parliamentary control over their implementation.
Meanwhile, there are certain frameworks that limit the competence of the Federal Assembly. What is a legal, democratic state? This is a state in which all branches of government carry out their tasks without going beyond the limits of authority. Thus, the Federal Assembly cannot substitute for executive or judicial structures, interfere in resolving issues related to the exclusive jurisdiction of regions or municipalities.
Communication with other institutions of power
When interacting with other bodies, the FS acts as an independent legislative structure that implements the functions of parliament. In the legal sense, the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation is not subordinate to any power structure, including the government and the president.
Of particular importance are the relations between the FS and the government, acting as the Supreme Executive Institute. The lower house of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation participates in the appointment of its chairman by expressing consent with the candidacy submitted by the president. Moreover, the government bears special responsibility not only to the head of state, but also to the State Duma. The latter, if there are reasons, has the right to express distrust of the Supreme Executive Structure.
An important role in the legislative process is played by the interaction of the Federal Assembly and the president of the country. The latter is involved in law-making: he signs, promulgates legislation, has the ability to veto a legal act. In addition, the President is empowered to prematurely dissolve the lower house of the Federal Assembly and call new elections.
The Federal Assembly carries out legislative regulation of the structure of federal institutions of representative, judicial, executive power, regulates the rules of their work, the general principles of their organization.
FS and courts
The judiciary, as you know, is independent and is subject exclusively to federal laws and the Constitution. Meanwhile, the competence of the FS includes the appointment of judges of the higher instances, which subsequently become irremovable.
Of particular importance in the field of enforcement of constitutional regulations is the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation. Legal documents, their individual provisions recognized as unconstitutional, lose their force.
FS structure: main characteristics
The chambers of the Higher Representative Institute have the following features:
- Independence. It is expressed in a clear distinction between the tasks of the chambers, the procedure for their implementation, the independence of the internal organization, and the chambers' own competence.
- Different scope of authority.
- The specificity of the representative nature of the activity.
- Different order of formation.
Composition
It is determined by the Constitution.
The Federation Council has 2 representatives from each region of Russia. They are the heads of the executive and representative structure of the subjects. They enter the Federation Council by position.
The number of deputies in the State Duma is set in 3 parts 95 of the article of the Constitution. Their number, according to the norm, is 450 people.
Formation Rules
The composition of the chambers is formed on the basis of constitutional provisions in the manner enshrined in federal laws.
The State Duma, according to general rules, is elected for 4 years. However, in 1993, as an exception, both houses of the 1st Federal Assembly were formed for 2 years.
The Constitution does not provide for the election of the Federation Council. The composition of representatives from the regions, of course, can change when adjusting the personal composition of the heads of representative and executive structures of constituent entities of the Russian Federation. The deputy corps, the leadership of executive institutions may be updated after regional elections.
Election of deputies of the State Duma
In Russia, citizens enjoy equal suffrage. Elections to the State Duma are held by secret ballot.
A citizen of Russia who has reached 21 years of age on election day may become a candidate for deputy.
50% of members of the State Duma are elected in single-mandate constituencies - one candidate from each constituency. In this case, an alternative must be provided to voters, that is, the number of candidates must be at least two.
The rest of the deputy corps is selected in proportion to the number of votes cast for federal lists represented by associations and blocs.
Thus, the formation of the State Duma is carried out according to a mixed system: for single-mandate constituencies, the results are determined by the majority, and by federal lists - proportional.
Parliamentary Center
The idea of its creation has been discussed in Russia since the mid-2000s. The idea is to combine the State Duma and the Federation Council in one building. In 2012, D. Medvedev, who was then the President of the country, expressed his support for the implementation of the plan.
The developers of the project explained the need for the creation of the Parliamentary Center by the cramped cabinets of parliamentarians, the remoteness of the services with which there is ongoing interaction. In addition, one of the main problems is constant traffic jams in the city center.
To create the Parliamentary Center, various districts of the capital were considered: Frunze Embankment, Krasnaya Presnya, Moscow City, Kutuzovsky Prospekt, Moskvoretskaya Embankment, Museon Park, etc. In 2104, the choice was stopped on the territory of the Mnevnichesky floodplain. However, then environmentalists spoke out against the placement of the Center.
The discussion of the project was to be carried out by both houses of parliament together with the Office for Presidential Affairs and the FSO. They should choose a project on a competitive basis. However, the works that were submitted caused a lot of disagreement, which could not be resolved even after the second competition.
The issue of financing was separately discussed. According to the original plan, the Center was supposed to be built with the money of a private investor. After the completion of work, he could get the buildings, in which the Federation Council and the State Duma are currently located, into ownership with the possibility of constructing other objects in their place. But according to the remark of G. Revzin (an architectural critic), the State Duma is in a building built in 1935 (the Council of Labor and Defense was located here earlier), the author of which is A. Lagman. This structure is protected by the state and, accordingly, cannot be demolished.
Currently, the idea of creating a Parliamentary Center is not being discussed. According to some experts, this is due to the deteriorating economic situation in the country. However, experts do not exclude that soon parliamentarians may again return to the discussion of this issue. Perhaps one more all-Russian competition of projects will be organized.