LEGITIMACY AND LEGALITY OF PUBLIC AUTHORITIES IN THE CONSTITUTIONAL PARAMETERS
The article deals with the political and legal aspects of ensuring the legitimacy and legality of public power in its constitutional parameters. The analysis of the relationship between the characteristics of legitimacy and legality of public power is given, the conclusion is made about the self-interested use of the legally uncertain concept of legitimacy in political practice in relation to Russia. The institution of elections is characterized as a tool to increase the legitimacy of power in the state, the relative nature of their inﬂuence on the degree of legitimacy of power due to the existing practice of manipulation in the conduct of elections. Attention is drawn to the fact that elections to the authorities may be a formal measure of the legitimacy of the government, but this does not mean that the government has real (actual) legitimacy. First of all, the elections should ensure the legality of power as the basis for the formation of the trust of people, which is transformed into the legitimacy of public power as a whole.