In his speech of welcome A.Yu. Vorobyov, Governor of Moscow Region, stressed upon the importance of studying the electoral system of modern Russia which has been sufficiently developed. The governor paid attention to the fact that studying the issues of improvement federal and regional regulations and of monitoring the election institution has great scientific perspectives and is of great practical value.

In his opening address I.R. Vildanov, the Chairman of Moscow Region Election Committee, made special reference to the connection between the development of democratic statehood and the society’s attention to the electoral system in modern Russia. In I.R. Vildanov’s judgment, both federal and regional regulations adopted in recent years promote the process of exercising citizens’ right to vote.

The article presents the idea of interconnection between the election process and educational institutions activities. This connection is disclosed though the phenomenon of political education. Basing on the data of opinion polls in Russia and international surveys the author pays special attention to the problems of absenteeism becoming a characteristic feature of the Russian society. According to the approach offered by the author, political education becomes an important component of the citizens’ socialization system.

In his speech E.A. Kolyushin, the member of the RF Central Election Committee, attracted everybody’s attention to the possibility of a citizen to invoke the right to appeal an election committee decision, which is provided by Article 46 of the Russian Federation Constitution. In E.A. Kolyushin’s judgment, such possibility makes election committees’ activities are to be guided by the norms of election legislation. The author gives examples of citizens’ appealing the election committees’ decisions.

The article is devoted to the issues of coming into being and functioning of election committees, gives characteristics of their structure and competence. Special attention is paid to Moscow Region Election Committee, and its organizational and legal status. The problems of ensuring the electoral system of Russia with legislation are discussed. Some ideas of solving these problems are offered.

The article is devoted to the topic of changes in the electoral legislation, in connection with the abolition of elections of a top-level official of a constituent subject of the Russian Federation, which later returned into the legislation in 2012. According to the author, all the existing changes since 2002 to 2013 will allow to prepare and train the members of divisional election committees on another, more qualitative level. This, in turn, will substantially increase the election officials’ level of professional training.

The article examines the constitutional foundations for a citizen’s human rights and freedoms realization in modern Russia. It has been noticed that though being interdependent systems, elections and democracy are distinct phenomena. The author comes to the conclusion that juristic nature of legal acts adopted both by the government and through a referendum is similar. Consequently, there is no need in additional endorsement or adoption of such acts.

On the choosing the way of reforming the whole political system, especially democracy, and the electoral system in particular, depends on the process of modern Russia’s further development. The article discusses the concept of «electoral system» in the narrow and wide sense. The author’s concept of “electoral system” is offered. The features of the majority and proportional systems, as well as their applicability in Russia are discussed. The dynamics of improvement of the electoral system in the Russian Federation is followed starting from 1993 up till now. The author stresses upon the advantages and disadvantages of the electing the deputies of the State Duma on the basis of the mixed (proportional-majority) electoral system. The issues of active reforming of the electoral system in Russia are mentioned. The author expresses his personal opinion about the recently introduced amendments to the electoral law. The author’s proposals on reforming the Russian electoral system are highlighted.

The article examines the limits of eligibility implementation within the norms of the present-day election legislation in the RF, as well as in the acts of judicial bodies of power. Limitations of eligibility are studied on certain examples of the Russian Federation Constitutional Court practice and of some other degrees of jurisdiction.

He institution of direct elections of high officials in the Russian Federation was abolished in 2005. Due to this fact some scientists and politicians expressed their opinions about the state power having no legitimacy on the level of a subject of the Russian Federation. The issue of whether a high official in a subject of the Russian Federation has any legitimacy is again becoming acute owing to the returning of the institution of direct elections of high officials. The article analyzes the organization and holding of elections of high officials in a subject of the Russian Federation. The author draws a conclusion about the legitimacy of such institution in modern conditions.

The author analyses the present state of the Russian electoral system on the example of Shchyolkovsky municipal district. The article gives a detailed analysis of electoral roll billing practice, as well as of billing accounts and forming the divisional election committees. Practical recommendations on improving the functioning of electoral system are given in the article.

The article is dedicated to the electoral legislation regulating the process of the election of deputies of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation; as well as to the legislation regulating the election of deputies of the Moscow Regional Duma. The foundation of the work is the analysis of the two electoral systems – the Moscow Regional Duma deputies and the deputies of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation. The article describes the main similarities and differences of the electoral legislation. Besides, the author shows the influence of the role of President of the Russian Federation on the electoral law.

On the example of Moscow Region the article highlights the issues of improving the legislation which regulates the order and terms of holding municipal elections and local referendum. The author gives the technical analysis of the law of Moscow Region “On Municipal Elections in Moscow Region” dating back to June 4, 2013; as well as the analysis of the amendments offered by the Moscow region Election Committee.

The article is devoted to the consideration of the Federal Law № 303-FZ «On Amending Certain Legislative Acts of the Russian Federation». The author also considers the choice of the electoral system of the regional level in the Moscow region to be a theme of possible future discussions. Special attention is paid to the author’s joint work with the Electoral Commission of the Moscow region and the adoption of a new wording of the Law of the Moscow region «On Elections of the Governor of Moscow Region» in 2012. In the end of the article the author draws a conclusion about the development and functioning of the electoral law, which should be based on an update of real social relations, and about the improvement of its legislative base.

The comparative analysis of various election systems is performed on the basis of the Moscow Regional Duma experience which has used in its practice all available election systems. Responding to all the changes in Russian federal law system, the representative body of the Moscow region applied in its practice both the majority election system and proportional election system. As a result, the system of choice has become the mixed election system. Russian politicians’ attitude to this fact was rather controversial. Such decision caused a great number of debates and discussions, which political scientists held even in the representative body itself.

The article highlights the issues of defining the concept, structure and kinds of election committees, their constitutional and legal regulation, as well as the order of their interaction with each other, the state structure, local governments and officials. The author discusses the problem of the present election committees of different levels being systemic. The problem is studied by the example of municipal election committees’ functioning. A number of suggestions about making their activities more professional and unified are formulated.

Election committees can certainly be called organizers of elections. Owing to this fact, the issue of the members of these committees’ status acquires significant importance. The article is devoted to the analysis of their legal position and the analysis of the legislation in particular. This legislation defines the means, way and conditions with which the members of election committees execute their responsibilities at official duty stations.

The article is devoted to the actual topic of the work of election committees in the Republic of Bashkortostan. The author analyzes the work that was conducted by the territorial election committee together with the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Republic of Bashkortostan, the Federal Migration Service in checking the submitted information about the put forward candidates, and also considers the use of the State Automatic System «Vybory» (“Elections”). The author proposes a system that would allow to simplify the procedure of “movement” of the members of the divisional election committees (DEC).

The article is devoted to the actual topic of the work of election committees in the Republic of Bashkortostan. The author analyzes the work that was conducted by the territorial election committee together with the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Republic of Bashkortostan, the Federal Migration Service in checking the submitted information about the put forward candidates, and also considers the use of the State Automatic System «Vybory» (“Elections”). The author proposes a system that would allow to simplify the procedure of “movement” of the members of the divisional election committees (DEC).

The article considers the issue of using distant learning in the system of election committees. The problem is actualized on the example of the concept of an educational Internet resource of Samara Region Election Committee. The main elements of such informational policy are given.

The article examines the experience of Tambov Region Election Committee, which is under the auspices of the Tambov Regional Duma has the right of submitting a draft law on elections. The author draws attention to the creation of a normative base by the example of developing a draft of the law «On Tambov Region Territorial Committees». The issue of ensuring a professional basis for the territorial election committees’ activities is given special attention. The author comes to the conclusion about the role of the Central Election Committee of Russia in the law-making activities of the territorial committees.

The article is devoted to the process of increasing the legal culture level in the electoral process in Korolyov, a city in Moscow region. The author considers legal training to be a system of transmitting and mastering skills, as well as of practicing and exercising skills of implementing elective franchise in modern conditions. Much attention is given to the content of legal training, as it is a way of sharing legal experience in organizing and holding of election, as well as of active and passive participating of all citizens and all political parties. In conclusion the author educes the fact of special influence on people’s mind and behavior to be made for conditioning their steady orientation on law-abiding behavior.

The article presents the main approaches revealing the theoretical concept of an election campaign, as well as the types of election campaigns and possible options of assessing its efficiency. Along with economical and social results of election campaigns the authors pay special attention to the indicators of motivation of election campaigns participants. The authors draw a conclusion about the necessity to integrate the indicators of the election campaign efficiency.

The author’s analysis of the current situation with the institution of election observers in Russia allowed to identify the key problems of its further development. The article considers the imperfection of the current legislation governing the observers’ powers. The author offers the comparison of the way the institution of election observers have been implemented in Russia and in other countries. It is proved that there is a necessity of introducing this institution as an element contributing to reduce the level of absenteeism in Russia.

The article discusses political rivalry as an integral part of the modern political process. The author analyses the election campaigns taking place in Russia paying special attention to the fact of whether competing candidates take part in them and whether they have programs of their own. The article states that the political changes taking place in Russia make the competitive beginning of elective campaigns more active, and at the same time they strengthen their constructive orientation. The author emphasizes the fact that a well-developed rivalry promotes stability and legitimacy of the political system as a whole.

The present-day electoral system in Russia has a strong impact on the course of the election campaign. The article raises the problems of changing the electoral system of electing members of the Russian parliament. The author presents different points of view on these changes. The article examines the possible causes for transition from a mixed electoral system to a proportional and vice versa. The author considers the laws being adopted as a means of regulation of the electoral company.

This article discusses the issue of voting rights granting to immigrants who do not have citizenship. The issue is examined through the modern multicultural trends in the integration practice of immigrants. Currently, in the immigration policies of most developed democratic countries there is a tendency characterized not only by economic and social rights vesting, but also by the enhancement of noncitizens’ political participation, especially at the municipal level. By these activities immigrants acquire the status of a social and political force that is able to have an impact on the domestic political processes.

The article considers the space-time continuum during the pre-election «electoral silence» when any agitation, including the dissemination of visual images, is prohibited. The author examines the phenomenon of social time, as well as the questions of political preferences formation, as well as differences in electors’ behavior at parliamentary and presidential elections. The impact of the «electoral silence» on the formation of political preferences is manifested in different behavior of electors at parliamentary and presidential elections. The importance of the elected political institution in the structure of the executive branch has a certain impact on the electoral behavior.

The article analyzes the electoral field in Russia, highlights social groups it is split into. Basing on sociological studies, the author verifies the theory of “four Russias” by N. Zubarevich (industrial Russia, rural Russia, Russia of national republics, Russia of megalopolises) and adds to the four segments of the Russian society (“four Russias”) the fifth one – “indifferent Russia”. By the researcher’s judgment, the split of the electoral field is a testament of a deeper split in the Russian society. It is stated that to overcome such a split it is necessary to develop the patriotic concept which will consolidate citizens.

The article is devoted to special features of the modernization of the election mechanism in the Russian Federation. These features are acquired due to the influence of latent structures of the political landscape on this process. The article raises a number of topics directly related to the specified issues, in particular, the conversion of various types of resources into an authority; as well as into crony capitalism in Russia, the social implications of the presence of clan communities in the political process and the voters’ political apathy. The author reveals the idea that if the modernization of the election mechanism entails deprivation of political potential of latent political communities, the latter will hamper the progress of such modernization.

The scientific work is focused on the analysis of the role of political management in ensuring the effective functioning of the Russian election system. The political management is considered as an alternative to traditional methods of «administrative resources». Having identified the interrelation of political culture with the political management, the author proposes a draft decision in the field of promotion of domestic electoral process and democracy. The research is based on the data of public opinion polls.

The article illustrates the transformation of the electoral system in Russia from the state-legal integrity of electing all state authorities to isolated legislative acts which regulate only the procedures and ways of holding elections and vote-counting procedures (“majority voted system”, “proportional system”, “mixed-member voting system”). The author considers such transformation to result in the increasing use of unlawful electoral technologies. To solve the situation the author offers to adopt acts on the regional electoral system in Russia, on the electoral system in Russia, and to include into the RF Constitution a special chapter on the electoral system in Russia.

The author makes an attempt to analyze the role and place of the rock movement in the activities against election fraud. In particular, the participation of rock musicians in the opposition campaigns designed to express dissatisfaction with mass violations at polling stations, which the participants of the opposition suppose to have taken place. Besides, there is a parallel between the protests against election fraud in modern Russia and the CIS and Eastern Europe countries during the «color revolutions» in terms of using the similar political technology, the part of which is the involvement of musicians in the campaign conducted by the opposition.