The Idea of a Social State as a Basis for the Legal Regulation of the Social Sphere in the Russian Federation

The object of the study in this article is the idea of a social state and the potential in it from the perspective of legal regulation of the social sphere in Russia. The aim of the study is to identify the directions of implementation of the idea of a social State in the framework of the social policy of Russia and to develop theoretical and practical recommendations. To achieve the goal, the article studies: the essence of the idea of a social state, including the relationship between the concepts of «social state» and «constitutional state »; stages of formation and development of the social state; social rights and freedoms of the person and the citizen as a component of the system of constitutional values; evaluation concepts « decent life», « free human development ». The methodology of the study is based on a system, complex and specific historical approaches, includes a set of general scientific and private scientific methods of research, including analysis, synthesis, logical, system-structural, formal-legal, historical-legal, etc. The following main results were obtained: the main approaches to the interpretation of the concept of «social state» were systematized, which allowed to clarify its essence and reveal the relationship with the concept of «constitutional state»; the stages of formation and development of the social state in relation to the peculiarities of fixing this concept in the legislation have been analyzed; the approaches to determine the place of social rights and freedoms of man and citizen in the hierarchy of constitutional values were systematized; formal criteria for the definition of the concept of «decent life» and the author’s interpretation of the concept of «free human development» have been proposed. The findings and results obtained can be used in further legal studies, as well as in public authorities.

social state, constitutional state, socialist state, social rights, human rights system, constitutional values, constitutional amendments, decent life, free human development, social legislation