THEORY OF STATE AND LAW. CONSTITUTIONAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE LAW

Some Issues of Improving the Constitutional Legislation of the Republic of Kazakhstan on Referendums

Abstract

This article provides a comprehensive analysis of the institution of the republican referen-dum in the Republic of Kazakhstan as the highest form of the direct expression of the people’s power. The relevance of the study is determined by the need to assess the compliance of the cur-rent legislation with the constitutional principles of popular sovereignty and by the necessity to improve the mechanisms of citizens’ participation in public governance. The normative basis of the study consists of the Constitution of the Republic of Kazakhstan and relevant constitutional laws regulating the institution of the referendum. The methodological framework of the research includes a combination of general scientific and special legal methods, such as comparative legal analysis, formal legal analysis, systemic analysis, and historical legal analysis. These methods made it possible to compare the Kazakhstani model of referendum regulation with the practices of foreign countries, including Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Germany, and others. The article examines in detail the subject matter of the referendum, the exhaustive list of issues prohibited from being submitted to a nationwide vote, and the complex multi-stage procedure for the imple-mentation of a popular initiative. Particular attention is given to the analysis of law enforcement practice, including the referendums held in Kazakhstan and the violations identified during their conduct.

The author substantiates the necessity of liberalizing the relevant legislation and proposes reducing the number of signatures required to initiate a referendum, simplifying procedural re-quirements, introducing the institutions of consultative and local referendums, and granting the people the right of constitutional initiative. According to the author, the implementation of these measures would contribute to the further democratization of public governance, strengthening trust between the state and society, and promoting the development of the concept of a “listening state.”