ISSUES OF LEGAL REGULATION OF PUBLIC OPINION STUDY

"The article examines the legislation and practice of Uzbekistan, international standards, and foreign experience in studying public opinion. The purpose of the study is to improve the legal basis of this process and eliminate existing shortcomings. During the study of national legislation, it was established that the concept of “studying public opinion” needs to be improved, the procedure for its implementation has not been developed, the forms and means of its implementation are accordingly absent from scientific circulation and have not been applied according to their meaning, and other problems have been identified. Views, practices, and regulations about public opinion and its study were studied through analysis, functional, structural, comparative, formal, legal, and other methods. As a result, the content of public opinion and its study were revealed, and the definition in national legislation of the general rules of this process was justified, including the need to determine the information that should be published to assess the quality and impartiality of the results of the study and the need to prohibit their publication during a referendum and on the day before it starts. The author put forward a proposal to entrust the Association of Sociologists of Uzbekistan and the Central Election Commission with the development of methodological recommendations for the study of public opinion and control over the implementation of these recommendations and legal norms in this area with the election commissions."