the authority of higher state agencies to enact laws; the legislative organs themselves are also understood under this term.

In bourgeois states, according to the principle of the separation of powers (legislative, executive, and judicial), the legislative power may be formally exercised only by parliaments. Under imperialism parliament weakens in its capacity as the carrier of legislative power, and there is an increase in the legislative authority of organs of executive power—for example, of the administration, ministries, or departments.

In the USSR, the delineation of the competence of different state agencies confirmed by the Constitution of 1936 assumes the implementation of legislative functions exclusively by the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, and in the Union and autonomous republics, by the supreme Soviets of the republics.