The Institution of Punishment in the Structure of a Disciplinary Society: An Attempt to Overcome the Limitation of the Microand Macrolevels of Social Processes Analysis

The article attempts to find an opportunity to examine the micro- and macrolevels of the legal field in general and the institution of punishment in particular. The representative of social macro-theory is Marxism with its analysis of socioeconomic formations, the driving forces of history, dialectics, as opposed to Foucault's "microphysics of power". The problems considered in the article can be formulated as follows: is it possible to connect Foucault's ideas about prison as a special type of a penitentiary institution, which has become a kind of a prototype, model for a panoptic society, with Marxist ideas about the law? How are private relations on the exchange of goods related to disciplining practices? The so-called "exchange" theory of law by Evgeny Pashukanis is taken as the "junction point" of the micro- and macrolevels of social processes studies. Pashukanis offers an original legal concept that deduces the content of law from market relations: legal phenomena are similar to those that occur during commodity exchange, and the basic concepts of law-legal norm, legal relationship, subject of law - are an expression of economic relations; in turn, the basic concepts of market economy - goods, value-have their "legal" content. Pashukanis focuses on criminal law, which has the most "visible" legal force. Justice is the equivalent of commodity exchange, a kind of an involuntary contract, the essence of which is the forced restoration of justice through punishment, through payment by the offender (debtor) of the cost of the harm caused to the whole society. Turning to the consideration of penalties related to imprisonment, Pashukanis discovers a phenomenon that, in many ways, will become the main content of Foucault's Discipline and Punish. Pashukanis claims that there is a certain discrepancy in the form and content of this kind of punishment: the actual practice of prison activities is connected not only with the isolation of criminals, but also with procedures for their correction, discipline, and education. In short, these activities are excessive in relation to its form (isolation from society). As a conclusion, the trends of changing the institution of punishment in the direction of its medicalization are outlined, which indicates the formation of a new type of the power - knowledge system, "biopower" by Foucault.

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