Institutional Forms of Cooperative Federalism in Foreign Countries (Using the Example of the Federal BRICS Member States)

When studying Russian federalism, the problem of dissonance inevitably arises between the constitutionally established model of cooperative federalism and the actual constitutional practice of interaction between the center and the regions. At the same time, recent constitutional and legal transformations in the Russian Federation indicate the formation of a steady trend towards strengthening cooperation between different levels of public authority in a single system of public authority. The effectiveness of such interaction depends on the availability and quality of the organizational and legal institutions and mechanisms that ensure it. In order to improve these tools of interaction, this article provides a comparative legal analysis of the institutions of cooperative federalism operating in the federal member states of the BRICS. In preparing this article, general scientific (dialectical, formal‑logical, systematic, historical analysis method) and special (formal‑legal, comparative‑legal) methods of scientific cognition were used. The article formulates the main features of the institutional forms of cooperative federalism, as well as identifies various approaches to their creation and functioning, legal status, quantitative and qualitative composition. Some features of the institutions of interaction between the center and the regions in a number of federations are presented, for example, the delegation of functions for coordinating relations between the federal center and the subjects of the Federation to organizations that are not vested with authority. The features of the constitutional and legal regulation of the relationship between the levels of public authority in the BRICS federal states are presented. The necessity of creating special institutional forms ensuring cooperation between the federation and its subjects is substantiated. The main risks associated with their activities are formulated. It is concluded that it is necessary to further improve the regulatory regulation of institutional forms of cooperative federalism in the Russian Federation, taking into account the analyzed experience of foreign federal states.