Виборче право як інститут міського права в українських містах Австрійської (Австро-Угорської) та Російської імперій

Abstract

У пропонованій статті досліджуються історико-правові аспекти виборчого право в українських містах (друга половина ХІХ – початок ХХ ст.). Проаналізовано законодавство Австро-Угорської та Російської імперій, що регулювало вибори органів місцевого самоврядування. The article deals with the historical and legal aspects of the electoral franchise in Ukrainian cities (the second half of the 19th – the beginning of the 20th cent.). The legislation of the Austro-Hungarian and Russian Empires regulating the election of self-government bodies is analyzed. Chronologically municipal law of the Austrian (later Austro-Hungarian) and Russian Empires was formed in the same historical period – in the second half of the 19th century. Their economic and political conditions were comparative; they were the necessity of modernization of all spheres of life, substantial international contradictions within. The article deals with the historical and legal analysis of the suffrage in Ukrainian cities, distinguishing common and distinctive features of the electoral legislation of the Austrian and Russian Empires. One of the most important principles of the medieval municipal law was the electivity of self-government bodies. This principle found its place and was developed by municipal law of the Modern period. A comparative analysis of the municipal law of the Austrian (Austro-Hungarian) and Russian Empires gives grounds to confirm the formation of the suffrage as a separate institution of the municipal law. Innovations of this institution in the Austro-Hungarian and Russian Empires concerned the active suffrage of city residents. The voters (the inhabitants of cities that had the active suffrage) were determined differently by the Austrian and Russian legislation. The constitutional acts and national laws of the Austrian, Austro-Hungarian Empire established that the right to elect representative bodies had only the members of the community, they also defined persons deprived of the suffrage. Both empires were characterized by the formation of the electoral franchise as an institution of municipal law. The suffrage as an institution of municipal law in the second half of the 19th century significantly differed from medieval legal norms regulating the election of the city authorities. However, the suffrage of the Modern period didn’t provide the principles of universality, equality of elections, direct voting and the secret ballot. The electoral franchise regulated in detail various electoral procedures deprived of the influence of common law. The main electoral qualification was property or tax one. The active suffrage was not determined by the membership in the territorial community but the interest in its activity. Differences of the suffrage are revealed in the election system, which was formed for the first time in the Russian Empire and was based on the territorial representation. The electoral legislation of the Russian Empire rejected the competitiveness of elections because it excluded canvassing. And the principle of contingency was dominated because the voters did not know their candidate before the election. The peculiarity of the suffrage as an institution of municipal law of the Austrian (Austro-Hungarian) Empire is a possibility to regulate the election relations not only by laws. At the same time the sources of the suffrage in the Russian Empire are the acts of interpretation of the City statute. Improving electoral legislation is carried out not by adopting new regulations but by interpreting the existing normative and legal acts.