B.N. Chicherin on parliament culture

Today the problemof parliament culture sparks interest not only because it is an important resource of representative power, but also because this subjectremains almost unstudied. Nevertheless, the history of parliamentarism itself in Russia is not limited by the date of 105 years thatwe have celebrated this year. We consider parliamentarism as a principle of power organization, as certain standards according to whichthe parliament elected by people is in their centre. Also we consider parliamentarism as a historical movement, which fought for the ideaof parliament through the application of the civil law requirements and through the public sovereignty widening within the bounds ofpopular representation. An outstanding historian and philosopher Boris N. Chicherin played a great role in the promotion of this idea inRussia. In our article we consider his model of popular representation in the context of the distinctive features of parliament culture thathave not lost their relevance even in the modern parliament practice. This is the symbolic nature of representation, when the question ofrepresentative dualism as a simultaneous exponent of public and state interest is raising, the question of the symbolic part of this dualism.It says about the correlation between public opinion and two types of political illuminators that influence it - parliamentariansand journalists. According to Chicherin only a parliamentarian elected by people and representing them in the state can adequately reflectthe political reality. A journalist with his armchair creativity is driven primarily by the thirst for sensation and by commercial interests.Therefore, his work often spreads discord. If you add here the selfishness of parties and of the opposition in general, even a revolutioncan be a fruit of their enlightenment - that is an infrequently phenomenon in parliament regimes (in contrast to monarchies) butnot inevitable. In the article the situations of the late 19th century and the beginning of the 21st century are compared, when in the daysof TV and network media, representative bodies get wider opportunities to promote their views and made decisions. Politicians themselvespress pop stars becoming the idols of the audience, being occupied in this role not with the political education of the people, butwith their own branding. Despite the different times and the different communicative opportunities of Chicherins era and ours, the authorconcludes that it is necessary to accommodate the parliamentarism classics point of view and to develop in future the category ofparliament culture, its elements and its practical application in the present conditions.

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