On the “Antimonopoly” Regulation of the Political Competition: Constitutional-Legal Aspects

The article analyzes one of the aspects of competition in politics’ legal protection related to the introduction of “antitrust” regulation in politics analogical to the economic sphere. The prospects for political market regulation in the Russian Federation are considered on the basis of an economic approach, also taking into account the constitutional nature of political competition and issues of legal regulation of political relations. As the author notes, it is permissible to use the economic approach for the purposes of understanding the mechanism of political competition, which is also confirmed by the works of Russian and foreign scholars. The possibility of introducing an “anti-monopoly regulation” in the political market by analogy with regulation of market relations in economics is considered as one of the directions for protecting political competition. The article analyzes the prospect of involving an independent “regulator” in the political field, and the possibility of endowing the existing authorities with the functions of protecting political competition. Nowadays, political competition is indirect object of administrative regulation, which covers only some aspects of electoral procedures constitutes an insignificant part of the total scope of competitive relations in politics. In this regard, political competition lacks comprehensive and systematic approach to ensuring and protecting. The author concludes that the direct use of the economic approach to the regulation of competition in politics is problematic, since it is associated with the methodological and legal issues of such regulation, which requires the identification of additional legal means of protecting political competition. The analysis of the constitutional provisions of several countries show that one of the means for maintaining a balance in the political arena could be the introduction of constitutional guarantees for certain political actors, which participate in the political competition. 

Keywords: political competition; competition regulator; monopoly; political market; elections; parliamentarism; model of power