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p A people’s representative and statesman. The Soviets of Working People’s Deputies with their more than 2,000,000 members represent all sections of Soviet society. Apart from everything else this huge number of deputies, who are scattered all over the Soviet Union, shows that through them the Soviets can carry out vastly important undertakings.

p In contrast to bourgeois parliamentarism, the Soviet system does not turn deputies into a special caste of professional politicians. Deputies of Soviets combine their state duties with regular employment at factories, offices, collective farms or elsewhere. All this enables them to maintain close contact with the electors, constantly to be in the midst of the people and thoroughly ascertain their needs and requirements.

p Their participation in production makes for direct knowledge of life and practice, which is indispensable for fulfilling any government assignment.

That is why no one in the U.S.S.R. ever raises the question whether it is permissible to combine deputy’s functions with work at an enterprise. By its very substance work in a Soviet is inseparable from day-to-day work at an enterprise, for in socialist society the people run the economy and the state.

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p A deputy to a Soviet is both a people’s representative and a statesman. Every deputy, therefore, must keep in touch with his electors, fulfil their mandates and realise their suggestions, consider their complaints and statements and see to it that their requests and proposals are met promptly, and also actively participate in the work of the Soviet to which he has been elected, and carry out the assignments given him by the Soviet or its standing or executive committees.

p Deputies conduct extensive organisational work in their constituencies, help to strengthen state and labour discipline, draw people into active participation in the administration of economic and cultural development, systematically interpret to their electors the decisions of their Soviets and the laws and regulations adopted by higher organs, and help to carry them out.

p Under the Soviet Constitution every deputy is duty bound to report to his electors on his own work and that of his Soviet, and the electors have the right to recall him 93 before his term of office expires if he has not justified their trust. These important principles defining the relations between deputies and the electorate have been further developed by the laws and regulations that have been adopted in the past several years. Let us take a look at the manner in which the constitutionally prescribed practice of deputies reporting to their electorate is carried out.

p What are mandates? Mandates are adopted at electors’ meetings which discuss the candidates or at meetings at which deputies report on their own work or on the work of the Soviet. Mandates are not requests which the Soviets can either carry out or not. They express the will of the electorate, their demands and their instructions to organs of power and have to be fulfilled by the Soviets and their Executive Committees. In effect they define the duties of the deputies and the activities of the representative organ. Hence, a deputy and the Soviet are fully responsible to the electors for the fulfilment of their mandates.

In their mandates the voters touch upon important questions connected with the improvement of cultural and welfare facilities, the construction of roads, improvement of transport and communications, the development of various local industries, and so forth.

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p Here is an example illustrating this point. In the 1965 elections to the city and district Soviets of Moscow, 7,704 deputies were elected, including 1,104 to the Moscow City Soviet.

p During the election campaign the deputies to the Moscow City Soviet received 380 mandates from their electors. ByMarch 1966, a large part of them had been fulfilled. At the close of March, the Moscow City Soviet held a session to discuss further measures to promote the role of deputies and members of standing committees and the activists in fulfilling the economic and cultural development plan. The speakers pointed out that in accordance with the instructions of the electors several new bus lines had been inaugurated, street lighting had been improved, new shops, schools and pharmacies had been opened, additional telephone booths had been set up in the streets, and so forth.

p At the same time, Moscow’s district Soviets accepted 1,029 mandates for implementation and by March 1966, over 75 per cent of them had been fulfilled.

p Electors’ mandates promote democracy, for each person has the right to offer his suggestions to be included in instructions to deputies and to participate in their discussion and approval.

p Proposals submitted by individuals and approved at a meeting of electors are regarded as their jointly drawn up instructions. In view of the fact that the bulk of the suggestions forwarded by the electors concern economic development and improvement of cultural and welfare facilities, the adoption of mandates helps to draw citizens into the leadership of economic and cultural development.

p Finally, constituents’ mandates call for constant improvement of the work of all sections of the administrative apparatus.

p The very fact that the deputies and the Soviets are responsible for the implementation of mandates makes the latter an important means by which rank-and-flle citizens directly control the work of the deputies, the Soviets and their executive and administrative bodies.

p Electors’ control. Under the Soviet state system the functions of electors are not restricted to voting. Constituents maintain contact with the deputies and control and 95 cll’ectiveiy influence their activity during the whole term of office of a given Soviet. This is the result of the consistent implementation of the principle of responsibility and accountability of the deputies to the electors, to the whole people.

p First of all we have to mention the constitutional obligation of deputies to report to electors’ meetings.

p “It is the duty of every deputy,” says Article 142 of the Constitution of the U.S.S.R., “to report to his electors on his work and on the work of his Soviet of Working People’s Deputies.”

p Deputies strictly fulfil this obligation and regularly report back to their electors.

p The law of some Union Republics states that deputies to local Soviets have to report to their electors not less than once in six months.

p But this does not mean that the electors have the right to hear deputies’ reports only at definite periods. Reportback meetings are held whenever the electors demand them.

p It has become customary for deputies regularly to report to their constituents, usually after each session of their Soviet, at meetings of deputies with the electorate.

p At first glance, it might appear that deputies submit their reports solely at the request of the constituents. This is not quite true. Deputies report back also on their own initiative, or in conformity with the decisions of local Soviets, or at the recommendation of Executive Committees, mass organisations and the personnel of the factories, offices or collective farms that had nominated them.

p As we have already said, each deputy is elected to a Soviet by the population of a given constituency. It is, therefore, his prime obligation to report back chiefly to his constituents.

p Sometimes, however, meetings are organised at which a joint report covering the activity of deputies of various Soviets is submitted. The report is usually delivered by the leader of a group of deputies. Although such reportback meetings are useful, they cannot take the place of a personal report of a deputy to his electors.

p In reporting on the work of the Soviet, a deputy usually dwells at length on matters directly related to his constituency. He tells the audience about the tasks next in line 96 and describes the prospects for the development of, say, not only the whole city, but also of his constituency.

p In the section of his report dealing with his personal work, he speaks about the suggestions he had made to his Soviet, or to one of its standing committees, or to a group of deputies and what decisions had been taken and the assignments he had fulfilled. He never fails to inform the electors about the measures taken to meet their complaints and requests, the headway he had made in fulfilling their mandates, and on his contacts with mass organisations.

p Electors display great interest in deputies’ reports and sharply criticise shortcomings. The resolution, which is adopted after the deputy has submitted his report and the electors have made their statements, contains an assessment of the work of the deputy and the Soviet. After they are discussed and adopted the electors’ mandates are entered into the minutes of the meeting.

p The right of recall. The right of electors to recall their deputy before his term of office expires is a very important guarantee ensuring genuine responsibility of a deputy to his electorate. This right is set down in Article 142 of the Constitution of the U.S.S.R. which states that every deputy may be recalled at any time upon the decision of a majority of his electors in the manner established by law.

p According to the law, a deputy may be recalled if he has not justified the trust of his electors or has committed acts unbefitting his office.

p The right to move a recall is secured to working people’s organisations and societies and to general meetings of working people, who inform the deputy concerned of the reasons for his recall. On his part, the deputy is entitled to present his case regarding the circumstances which have led to his recall. The question is discussed at a general meeting of the electors of a given constituency. A recall decision is taken by a show of hands.

p Every mass organisation and every citizen has the right to unhindered agitation for or against the recall of a deputy.

p A deputy is deemed relieved of his office if the majority of the electors of his constituency vote against him.

p We still hear, though not very often, of deputies who commit unbefitting acts or are guilty of neglect of 97 duty. With regard lo such deputies the electors move for their recall. Suffice it to say that in 1965 alone the electors recalled more than 350 deputies of local Soviets. There have been cases when deputies to the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R., and Supreme Soviets of Union and Autonomous Republics were relieved of office.

p Soviet law not only proclaims but guarantees that deputies are completely dependent on their electorate whose interests they must uphold in organs of state power.

In this way Soviet society implements Lenin’s principle that any elective body can be considered really democratic and truly representative of the people’s will only if it recognises and exercises the right of electors to recall their deputies.