“Direct will of the people” as a constitutional and legal category

The paper considers the problem of defining the concept and characteristic features of the constitutional and legal category “direct will of the people”, as well as its place in the corpus of terms of the domestic constitutional law science. The author substantiates a thesis about the synonymy of the terms “direct will of the people” and “direct democracy” and gives the definition of these concepts. The paper gives some signs of the direct democracy forms, which distinguish it from other related constitutional law institutions, as well as specific signs of its higher forms – a referendum and free elections. Separately, the extraordinary forms of direct democracy are considered – the all-Russian vote of 1993, through which the current Constitution of the Russian Federation was adopted, and the all-Russian vote on the approval of the amendments to the Constitution of the Russian Federation in 2020. The author analyzes the content of these constitutional and legal institutions, highlights their specific features. It is indicated that these institutions have a significant similarity with the federal referendum, but they have their own unique characteristics, which make such electoral procedures the most suitable for solving specific problems. The author concludes that the institutions of the direct will of the people take precedence over the institutions of representative people power, as well as about the dualism of the “direct will of the people” concept, which can be considered in two legal meanings: as a process or as a result of the implementation of the will of the people. It is stated that three components are the basis for the implementation of the direct will of the people: a subject of legal relations; the necessity of personal participation of citizens; the unity of the will of all citizens and the direct relationship of the decision made with the people’s will.