Bevz Y. Constitutional legal framework for political parties’ organization and functioning

The thesis is a comprehensive study of the constitutional legal framework for political parties’ organization and functioning with the development of new scientifically based provisions and proposals. In chapter 1 " General theoretical fundamentals for organizing the political parties» the «political party» concept is specified, its features are highlighted. The correlation of the «political party» concept with similar ones is investigated. The system of principles for political parties’ organizing and functioning is determined and characterized; the process of political parties’ forming is analyzed; it’s stages and features are highlighted. Firstly the "political party" concept has been separated from similar concepts, such as "election party", "political club", "political movement", "civil and political movement" and "political force" due to such criteria: formation order; shared ideology; structure; existence duration. For the first time the system of principles for political parties’ organizing and functioning is suggested, that includes the principles of supremacy rights; democracy; legal equality; participants’ equality; legality, transparency, independence; freedom forming and choosing the methods and forms of activities; voluntariness; transparency, openness and publicity; non-profitability. The "political party" concept has been improved. It is suggested to define the political party as voluntary formation of Ukrainian citizens, registered and based on single ideology and goal for state policy implementation, participation in forming and functioning of state authorities and local self-government, providing for the democratic society activities and implementing the constitutional rights and freedoms of a person and a citizen. The doctrinal approaches to political parties’ functions have been improved and the expediency to supplement the functions has been reasoned, in particular: 1) formation of public perception; 2) involvement of citizens in politics; 3) encouragement for developing political education; 4) promotion for legal culture, legal awareness for society and citizens. The additional features of political parties have been developed: 1) availability of joint goal; 2) ideological character of the party doctrine as prescribed in the party program. The provisions on the process of political parties’ creation have been further developed and the expediency to separate its three stages has been additionally justified, namely: previous (political party occurrence), main (political party creation) and final (political party registration) stages. In chapter 2 "Constitutional legal regulation of the functioning of political parties" participation of political parties in the election process is considered; the directions for interaction between political parties, state authorities and local self-government and public organizations are determined; the features of state control over political parties’ activities are discovered; the prospects and proposals on legal improvement of political parties’ organizing and functioning are developed. Initially the electoral, parliamentary and governmental directions for interaction between the political parties, state authorities and local self-government bodies have been defined. The scientific statements on the political parties’ responsibility have been developed. It is proved its political and legal (constitutional-legal) nature. The proposals on granting rights to collect signatures to support the decision on the political party creation online using electronic digital signature; establishing the requirement concerning minimum number, not less than 100 participants in the constituent assembly of the political party, during which the decision to create the political party should be accepted; granting rights to participate in elections for political parties with minimal number of members not less than 10 thousand persons, if the period from the date of political party registration till the election date is at least a year; setting additional conditions for abolishing the administrative fee for state registration have been further developed. The following proposals have been developed: to introduce the mechanism for forming the election commissions, which excludes multiple inclusion of candidates from political parties; to introduce the requirements for the official observers at the elections (except observers from international organizations) concerning availability of legal education or certificate on election law special courses from the CEC or educational institutions which train professionals in law.