Features of Legislative Regulation of Democracy in the USSR in Late 1950-Early 1970s

Abstract

The relevance of this study stems from the need to understand attempts to legislatively enshrine and implement socio-economic and political human rights in the context of the transformation of Soviet statehood. The purpose of the article is to examine the specifics of legislative regulation of citizens’ rights from the second half of the 1950s to the first half of the 1970s in the process of the Soviet democracy development. The methodological basis of the study consists of historical-legal, formal-legal, and comparative legal methods, as well as a systemic analysis of legislation and its application. The results of the study demonstrate that the period under consideration was marked by significant detailing and institutionalization of socio-economic rights (labor, leisure, pensions, education, and healthcare) through the codification and adoption of sectoral legislative frameworks. At the same time, political and personal freedoms remained declarative and strictly controlled. The conclusion emphasizes that the legislation created the formal legal preconditions for citizen participation in public life, while maintaining the priority of state interests.