CONSTITUTION AS A LEGAL INSTRUMENT OF SOCIETY: ISSUES AND TRENDS L.YU. <...> Grudtsina1, A.V. Lagutkin2 1 The Department of Civil Law Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation 49, Leningrad pr-kt, Moscow, Russia, 125167 2 The Department of Administrative and Financial Law Plekhanov Russian University of Economics 36, Stremyanny lane, Moscow, Russia, 117997 In the article there is an attempt to understand, taking into account the historical experience, the social, legal and economic nature of the Constitution as a legal management tool, issued in the end of the XVIII century, which has a dual nature. <...> On the one hand, the historical appearance of the Constitution as a legal act related to the socio-economic (structural public) shifts (revolutions) in developing societies, when the Constitutions replaced the monarchs and were a tool of society, which was negotiating with the state. <...> From the subject of management society is transformed into an object of management, and the state, which once acted as a control object, becomes the subject of management. <...> Social Contract may become a desired national idea of Russia, uniting the state and society and contributing to the development of democracy at its best. <...> However, the term «constitution» in its modern sense appeared in the XVIII century [18. <...> For example, in XVII in this state actively took constitutional acts (laws), which had only a few features of the Constitution (Habeas Corpus Act in 1679, the Bill of Rights of 1689) The Constitution, however, in the sense of a single instrument in the UK was not accepted. <...> Grudtsina L.YU., Lagutkin A.V. Constitution as a legal instrument of society… 81 The second constitution in the world was adopted in 1791 in France [6. <...> Representatives of this approach consider the Constitution as a legal act, limiting the power of the state and guaranteeing human rights. <...> According to the Social Democrats, the Constitution in its essence reflects the balance of class forces, consolidating the rule of one class, overwhelming other groups in society. <...> P. 10], which has not changed since the time the idea of the Great October Socialist Revolution of 1917 [3. <...> The positive role of the constitution was caught by the Liberals but not by Social Democrats. <...> Constitution — is a normative legal act (a set of acts), which has the highest legal force and regulating the most <...>