The Value‑Form of Punishment: Dissolving the Pašukanis and Rusche–Kirchheimer Divide

Abstract This article challenges the widespread assumption that Marxist analyses of punishment are theoretically fragmented. Using Garland's paradigmatic formulation as a point of departure, it argues that the supposed split between Pašukanis’s commodity‑form account and Rusche–Kirchheimer’s labour‑market analysis reflects different conceptual entry points and expository aims rather than theoretical plurality, thereby clarifying the analytical level at which the dualism arises. Through a dialectical reconstruction grounded in textual analysis, the article shows how juridical equivalence (Pašukanis) and labour‑market discipline (Rusche–Kirchheimer) are articulated moments of the same value‑form logic linking state formation, commodity relations, police power and penal development. Although primarily theoretical, the article illustrates the contemporary salience of a unified framework by examining punitive modalities—priced governance, electronic monitoring, income‑indexed fines and predictive‑policing platforms—that reproduce equivalential logics under advanced capitalism.