Legitimation of ethno-confessional self-determination of citizens in the legal systems of newly independent states: a comparative political analysis

Introduction. The self-organization of citizens based on cultural identities - ethnic and confessional - constitutes a substantial segment of civic self-determination. The pursuit of ethno-confessional interests is most appropriately conducted within the general legal framework of democratic states, where civil-society actors shaped by ethnic and religious determinants are formed and operate on legitimate grounds within public policy. The legal and doctrinal substantiation of self-organization grounded in ethno-confessional identity requires scholarly attention, not least because religion and the religious factor increasingly manifest themselves as extra-political forces within political processes.

Purpose. Identification of the determination, principles, and country specifics of the target bank of laws of some post-Soviet states, which ensures the ethno-confessional security and comfort of citizens in the context of democratic transit, which provides for ideological, ideological pluralism and identification freedom.

The methodological basis of the research is institutionalism, which makes it possible to identify the correlation of systemic determinants and objective circumstances of democratic political transit in the republics of the former Soviet Union with the development of targeted legislation - the constitutions of newly independent states. The research capabilities of institutionalism make it possible to conduct a comparative political analysis of the intentions of the basic laws of a number of countries, which creates the opportunity to consider the legal framework of ethno-confessional self-determination as a significant segment of civil society as a socio-political institution.

Results. The legislative (primarily constitutional) frameworks established in Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus and Moldova sustain the realities of democratic political transition, which entail expanding the identity-based grounds for citizens’ self-organization within civil society. The 1990s were a period of forming new legal systems that codified innovations in the political systems and regimes of the CIS countries, along with their many contradictions. The constitutions of the states that emerged after the dissolution of the USSR in 1991 provide the legal foundations for state sovereignty, state-citizen relations and national models of civil society. Law-making in the sphere of state-religion relations - and the place of religion and religious public organizations in socio-political relations and in national models of civil society - is shaped by the presence of diverse ethnic and religious groups that have been involved in ethno-political contradictions and conflicts with a pronounced religious component. Despite constitutional principles aligned with international guarantees of human and civil rights in the sphere of ethnic and religious identity, the real socio-political practices of these countries exhibit problems, contradictions and conflicts stemming from ethnic and religious determinants.

Conclusions. The constitutions of the newly independent states constitute the legal basis for the establishment and functioning of religious organizations within the system of civil society. The legislative frameworks of these countries: (a) continue certain legal norms of the Soviet system pertaining to nationstate building and state-religion relations; (b) are innovative, reflecting the new realities of state and political sovereignty in the newly formed states; and (c) capture ethno-confessional specificities and citizens’ demands while at the same time articulating new principles governing relations between the state and religious institutions and new pathways for building nation states.

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