The impact of constitutionalism on direct and representative democracy in the rule of law

Abstract

The development of direct and representative democracy, as the essence of the rule of law, imposes the need to exercise political activities based on the Constitution, but also a control of political activities exercised by the rulers - constitutionalism. Constitutionalism, through the control of constitutionality, allows society to exercise verification of governance measures. Constitutionalism exercises differently the assessment of the sovereignty of the people in the direct and representative execution of the rulers of democracy. The research evaluates through the historical prism of applying the constitutional law and controlling the constitutionality of the processes of exercising direct and representative democracy in developing democracies, such as the Republic of Moldova, in relation to developed democracies. The study found the application of direct democracy to the adoption of the Constitution of the Fifth Republic in France unacceptable. In comparison, the study considered inadmissible the adoption of a law to revise the Constitution through the direct exercise of sovereignty, as attempted in Moldova in the absence of a procedure directly regulated by the Constitution, supported by the indirect agreement of the Constitutional Court. The positive and intense political application, including publicity, of this procedure, guided the people of the Republic of Moldova, through their great thought, to ignore this initiative without even 1/3 of the voters running in the referendum. DOI: https://doi.org/10.53486/9789975155649.34; CZU: 321.7+342.4(478); JEL: K100, K120, K150