Yesterday, June 17, a lively discussion was held at the Library on Gazetny on “Paternalism and the Welfare State: Constitutional, Legal, and Institutional Issues.” The event, organized at the Gaidar Institute, brought together experts in the fields of law, political theory, and economics to discuss one of the key challenges facing the modern constitutional order.
Participants in the discussion included: Ivan Brikulsky, Candidate of Sciences (Law), Director of the Center for Constitutional Justice, and author of Constitutional Risks of the Welfare State, Andrey Bystrov Candidate Sciences (Law), Associate Professor at the Department of History and Theory of State and Law at Russian State University for the Humanities (RSUH), and Dmitry Alekseev Associate Professor at the G.V. Maltsev Department of Theory of State and Law at the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), Candidate of Political Sciences, Research Fellow at the Institute of Scientific Information for Social Sciences (INION) of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), and Visiting Associate Professor at the National Research University Higher School of Economics (HSE). The meeting was moderated by Rostislav Bevzenko, a legal analyst at the Center for Evidence-Based Expertise of the Gaidar Institute.
The participants focused on fundamental issues of law: the rule of law, equality, and individual autonomy, as well as historical aspects of the 1993 Constitution and “social consensus.” The issue of paternalism drew particular interest: the impact of the state’s social function on individual autonomy, economic freedom, and the balance in “state–individual” relations. The discussion went beyond dry legal formulas, touching on a broader range of questions about what incentives and behavioral models contemporary social policy shapes.
The discussion was prompted by the monograph Constitutional Risks of the Welfare State by Ivan Brikulsky. During the event, participants discussed the interdisciplinary aspects of the topic, examining the welfare state at the intersection of constitutional law, political science, and institutional analysis.
The event took the form of a lively and spirited debate. The audience actively engaged in the discussion of the presented theses.
We thank all attendees for their interest and active participation!