Right to resistance in the context of democratic processes

Abstract

Problem setting. Right to resistance and especially right to rebellion should be considered as an element of constitutional order’s ensuring. It means the right of some Ukrainian citizen to realize civil disobedience as a resistance and a rebellion as to one kind of it.

Rebellion against the power is the result of absence of stage-by-stage mutual discussion and consensus between power and people. It means that the absence of past democratic practices could be the reason of power usurpation and human rights violations.

Recent research and publications analysis. Right of people to resistance and rebellion was considered by numerous scientists in the spheres of constitutional right, of political science and legal theory of past and modern times. Among them it could be named J. Lock, V.V. Rechitskij, S.Pogrebnjak etc.

Paper objective. The main aim of the article is to find out the essence of the right to resistance and rebellion as an element of constitutional order’s ensuring, to review reasons of it, its forms and their realizations in a modern democratic state.

Paper main body. In the article it is considered the direct and indirect form of the right’s realization. Directly the right to resistance takes is executed in the case of violations by bodies of a state power or in the case of citizen’s disagreement with their activity by means of unarmed meetings, campaigns and demonstrations, strikes for protection of their economic and social interests. One of the most democratic methods of resistance that has indirect character is a nationwide referendum against the solutions of a parliament. The alternative forms of resistance are civil hearings and people’s legislative initiatives, “people’s veto”, which can decrease the probability of a conflict aggravation.  

Conclusions. Only participation of each citizen in the process of state rule should to prevent human and civil rights violations, abuses of state authority that can have as a consequence the direct realization of a natural right of people to resistance to oppression.