The article deals with the main issues of power and the will of the people, associated with the activities of public authorities. Consideration of these issues is based on the works of Professor E. I. Kozlova. It is noted that the content of a democratic state should be based on the values of the society of a particular state, without establishing the primacy of a single standard of a liberal state. Building a democratic state may be associated with the solution of the following tasks: achieving a balance of interests of the whole society and the minority; creating conditions for a broad discussion of issues of state and public importance; providing access to information about the activities of public authorities; historical succession of state building. It is noted that these tasks are solved in law through the introduction of public discussion of bills; fixing traditional values in constitutional law and sectoral legislation and ensuring their protection (protection of the feelings of believers, a ban on the rehabilitation of Nazism, a ban on same-sex marriages). At the same time, it is proposed: to introduce criteria and grounds for mandatory public discussions for public authorities; legislative consolidation of the publication of transcripts of meetings of public authorities that do not contain state secrets. In the development of the theory of democracy E. I. Kozlova, the author notes that the list of forms of realization of national sovereignty cannot be closed, it is constantly updated and developed by the peoples themselves, in accordance with their will.