THE INSTITUTION OF PRESIDENCY IN THE USA AND RUSSIA

Abstract

The article conducts comparative legal analysis of the institution of presidency in the United States of America and the Russian Federation. The authors give detailed description of various aspects of the institution in question placing special emphasis on the specific powers exercised by the presidents of two respective states. The Constitution of the United States adopted in the 18th century (1787) contained a number of novelties, which subsequently contributed to a great extent to constitutional and national development in most countries worldwide. It separated the government into the legislative, executive and judicial branches and established a completely new institution, the President. In the era when monarchies dominated, this institution was initially perceived as their equivalent limited only by election for a fixed term. However, it became clear very soon that the faraway and low-populated United States of those days created an entirely new constitutional structure with a complex democratic mechanism of separated branches of power balancing and checking each other. In the USSR the institution of presidency was established in 1990, and then Russia introduced the presidency by referendum in March 1991.Currently the status, procedure for election, competence and grounds for removal from office of the President of the Russian Federation are subject to clear and detailed regulation of Chapter 4 of the Russian Constitution and Federal Law№19 “On the Election of the President of the Russian Federation” of January 10, 2003 as amended on July 13, 2015. The legal framework, entirety of powers, and role of the President were determined on the basis of the experience of a number of presidential republics, including the USA and France, taking into account specific features of Russia’s history, mentality of its people and political elite.