The Importance of Methodological Approaches when Choosing Optimal Electoral System
Yet another change of the electoral system at the federal elections in the Russian Federation, the revision of the rules of conducting elections triggers a number of the questions about purposes and criteria of such reforms, doubts their objective nature, and undermines voters’ trust in the elections. The variety of electoral systems and the search for the best one is the topic of fierce scientific debates in various social sciences, including jurisprudence. Since the electoral system is a complex scientific category, there are many different approaches and methods to investigate it. And the author undertakes the search of those to emphasize the importance of taking into account of scientific developments, political will manifestations when the legislator resolves the conceptual task of selecting the electoral system that in suitable for the society and the objective conditions. The author recognizes the leading role of party-political ideology, viability when reforming the electoral legislation. However, in order to strengthen the legal order in the country, scientifically substantiated conclusions, obtained through the combination of general scientific, special (sociological, psychological and historical-cultural), particular methods of legal science, should become the basis for any legislation, including the electoral one. The author reveals such new methodological approaches, as anthropological, culturological, historical, social-psychological and comparative-legal for the conceptual solution of the problem of selection the best electoral system and its further use in the law-making and law-enforcement practice. The author touches upon the issue of searching for a scientific set of instruments, with the aid of which it is possible to apply the science in the political sphere in order to control political processes, including through the law.