Public Finance: Process of Constitutionalization and Internationalization

Abstract

The subject-matter of this article is the processes of constitutionalization and internationalization of public finances. The modern system of government is constitutional. The activities of the governmental bodies in the financial and budgetary spheres are exercised in legal forms. The fundamental principles and rules of this activity are laid down by the constitutions. It relates to the key directions of the financial regulation (the elaboration and adoption the law on budget, the legislation on taxes etc.). The constitionalization of public finances is a long historical process. Due to it, new principles and rules of financial regulation have been established in the organization and functioning of the government. Constitutionalization of public finances meant the transition from the era of absolutism to the system of constitutional (responsible) government. The era of constitutionalism led to the expansion of the financial provisions in the national constitutions. Some of the modern constitutions are called therefore “financial”. Surely, the process of constitutionalization is uneven. It is manifested in the embodiment of financial rules and norms in the texts of the constitutions as well as in their implementation in the practice of governmental bodies. There are some peculiarities of constitutionalization of public finances in the Russian Federation, due to some special features of its historical evolution. One can see the growing interest of the Russian legal scientists to the problem. The process of constitutionalization of public finances is not completed yet. It will be expanding because the growing role of public finances in the economic and social development. In the era of globalization, the internationalization of public finances has become a universal trend. It is manifested in various forms. First of all, it is strengthening of the supranational financial standards. It is also the structural changes concerning national governmental bodies and institutions of the supranational organizations. The most evident example is the European Union. The general trend is going on the direction of expansion of financial activities. The Union has its own budgetary system. The list of the budgetary principles and rules is included in the Treaty of European Union and the Treaty on functioning of the European Union.  Some of rules have been reproduced from the constitutional law of the member states. The new phenomenon is the implementation of the rule of the budgetary discipline, which was elaborated on the supranational level, in the national constitutional systems of some Member-states. One can see the trend towards the growing harmonization and convergence of the national and supranational financial systems in the modern world.