Framing a New Constitution
Framing a New Constitution
Instead of adopting a new, fully consistent constitution, Russian leaders introduced amendments to the USSR constitution in 1989–1991 and to that of the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic (RSFSR) in 1990–1993. Boris Yeltsin's conflict with parliament over the proper balance of legislative and executive power proved to be a hindrance to the realization of a new constitution. Another obstacle was the dispute between the central government and Russian regions. A new constitution required a decision on how to give federalism real institutional form. This chapter examines the issues involved in the framing of a new constitution in Russia by looking at the struggle over economic reforms and the legislative-executive relations to center-regional power. It discusses Yeltsin's use of a large national constitutional assembly as a forum for drafting a new constitution and considers his extraconstitutional decrees which put into effect the 1993 constitution and the electoral law applied to the Duma elections.
Keywords: constitution, Russia, Boris Yeltsin, parliament, federalism, economic reforms, constitutional assembly, electoral law, Duma, elections
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