Democratic civil control: a retrospective view

The article analyzes the evolutionary path of the world community in realizing the need to build a system of democratic civilian control over paramilitary units, internal security and intelligence services. Understanding the need to introduce measures of democratic civilian control has become one of the principles of the rule of law, aimed at preventing the arbitrariness of the state and its bodies. The examples of individual states from both the Middle Ages and the modern era illustrate the gradual evolution of views and practical approaches to the inadmissibility of state despotism. The unconditional recognition by international institutions of issues related to the exercise of democratic control over military formations and internal security services forces not only to improve the national legislative framework, but also the basic principles of organizing the activities of these formations.