The article provides a political and legal analysis of the impact of populism on the constitutional process in Central and Eastern Europe and Ukraine. It is noted that populism is the greatest hidden threat to constitutional values, such as dignity, freedom and justice. Populism lays the foundations of authoritarianism and hybrid democracy.

 It is defined that one of the dangers of political populism in the conditions of democratic transit is the leveling of the principles of the rule of law and democratic legitimacy, which results in the involution of constitutionalism and the systemic crisis of the existing legal order.

It is proven that populists have a negative attitude towards any legal procedures and institutions, in particular those that make it unattainable for them to achieve their mercenary goals. One of the means of political struggle of populist parties is to weakenthe independence of the judiciary and reduce the role of constitutional jurisdiction. The experience of Central and Eastern European countries shows that it is almost impossible to combine populist legislation with the independence of a body of constitutional jurisdiction.

It is emphasized that populist parties, which have a high level of social trust, are trying to expand their powers by adopting populist constitutions. Populists use the constitution as a facade that hides their real goal – concentration and retention of power. They are willing to sacrifice the constitution if it ceases to serve their purposes. Populist constitutions lose their legal essence and ability to be a constituent act of the people. Public debates on the adoption or amendment of constitutions initiated by the populists themselves do not take into account the alternative views of the minority and the political opposition. Populist constitutions become a political tool through which only one party, which monopolizes the right to represent the interests of the people, rules.

 It is established that populist regimes tend towards direct democracy, and to this end they proclaim the policy of “true democracy”, which includes the adoption of a number of legislative acts through popular initiative. However, the democracy proposed by the populists should not be equated with participatory democracy. The latter provides for active participation of every interested citizen in the social and political life of the country. Not only is the number of participants or the form of their participation in such democratic processes important, but also the reasons that motivate people to take part in them.

As a result of the systematic analysis, which is based on the axiological approach, the author concludes that an effective mechanism for preventing political populism in terms of a transit is the legal ideology of the state, which is based on the principles of constitutional patriotism. The latter combines the constitutional tradition and modern values of constitutionalism, namely human dignity and dignity of the nation; personal freedom and people’s sovereignty; democracy and minority rights; limiting the discretionary powers of state authorities and ensuring the independence of the judiciary.

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