FUNCTIONS OF THE STATE, SUPREME POWER AND STATE APPARATUS
Background: lack of distinction between functions of the state, state apparatus and their bodies is being harshly criticized in the scientific literature for quite a long time. Yet none of the works devoted to the state functioning has proposed their separation from the functions of the state apparatus (mechanism) and the functions of the latter have not practically mentioned. The reason for this is the actual identification of the state with the organization of the public political power, its apparatus (mechanism). With this approach, it is quite natural that the functions of the state and the functions of the state apparatus, as its governing subsystem, are actually identified. Objective: on the basis of the approach the author of the article supposes to determine objective organic functions of the state as a socio-political body, to show how these functions imply the functions of the Supreme power of the state and the entire state apparatus, to establish the scientific and practical basis for their classification and political and legal content. Methodology: dialectical, metaphysical, systemic, structural and functional, comparative legal methods of research. Results: the article substantiates the existence in any sovereign state several objective organic functions: integration, adaptation, institutionalization, and management, which give rise to the func tions of the Supreme power and the entire system of public power of the state. The General and Basic function of the latter is the public (state) management of all socially significant affairs in the state, which ensures its maintenance, preservation and reproduction of its own systemic integrity, and, where necessary, reformation and development. Conclusions: all areas and activities of public power, which in the theory of state and law are called the functions of the state actually act as a function of the apparatus of public power. According to their content, they are activities for the management of the entire system of public power by individual branches and spheres of public life and can be classified according to the va riety of grounds: internal and external; basic and non-basic (auxiliary); economic, social, cultural, administrative and political, etc. Their distribution between different levels, levels and bodies of the state apparatus are established by the Supreme power, the main functions of which are the constituent (the establishment and reform of the state), the management of the state-organized society as a single integral organism (political leadership), the function-the role of the political center as the place of the most important strategic decisions, the function-the role of the Supreme socio-political arbiter in the state and society.