Nicos Poulantzis as a theorist of law and founder of structuralist Marxism.

Duben' Andrei Kirillovich Scientific Associate, Institute of State and Law of the Russian Academy of Sciences; Assistant, Department of Civil and Administrative Proceedings, Russian State University of Justice 10 Znamenka Street, Moscow, 119019, Russia k.duben@mail.ru Other publications by this author

The history of political and legal doctrines is one of the fundamental directions in the study of the theory of state and law, which is aimed at identifying and defining the basic patterns of development of society and the state as a whole. It is worth noting that the study of individual theoretical provisions and concepts of scientists gives an idea of the content, types, nature and directions of development of the theoretical heritage of the scientist in the knowledge of the state and law, thus the study of scientific papers allows us to offer recommendations to individual theoretical and practical provisions, improvement of legal norms, principles and concepts that contributed to the development of the rule of law and they became the basis for state building.

From a methodological point of view, the article substantiates a new approach to modern historiography and its role in the history of political and legal doctrines. Analyzing the scientific legacy of Nikos Poulanzas, the author concludes that the scientist in his works highlights the belonging of classes, as well as the role of the state in the legal regulation of relations and interaction between different classes, in this regard, the independence of the state is largely determined by the content and intensity of the political struggle within the state. The methodological basis of the research is a system of modern general scientific and private law methods, using the following general scientific methods: analysis and synthesis, abstraction and modeling, observation, generalization, description, classification, etc. Undoubtedly, the issues of the history of political and legal doctrines occupy a special place in the theory and philosophy of law, scientists have repeatedly discussed its place and role. In this regard, the leading light of the philosophy of law, V.S. Nersesyants, noted that historiography plays an important role in understanding the history of political and legal doctrines from the point of view of the possibility of objective and complete, reliable, truly scientific coverage and consideration ^[1]. As V.S. Gorban rightly points out, the history of political and legal thought as a scientific legal discipline should have a historiographical model formulated and defined, which should essentially acquire a universal model of historiography of modern political and legal knowledge and include certain features of a particular view. In this regard, the study of certain theoretical positions of scientists and philosophers forms the basis of the national history of political and legal thought ^{[2, p. 9]}.

Considering the current state of the history of political and legal doctrines, it is worth paying attention to the foreign policy processes that determine the further development of legal phenomena. Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences A.O. Chubaryan in his works emphasized that history in international and domestic historiography is a rather complex and independent process in the form of interaction of centripetal and centrifugal forces that form and determine integration trends, national ideas and interests ^{[3, p. 9]}. Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences A.N. Savenkov believes that the modern stage of social development has actualized the traditional problems not only of Russian, but also of the global philosophy of law in general, it is about finding the ideological foundations of modern society, the role of man in the modern world, the value foundations of the existence and coexistence of peoples and states, the just principles of the world order, etc. ^{[4, c. 322]}.

Thus, the relevance and significance of this topic in the philosophy of law is due to the fact that historiographical research, as a separate type of research, allows scientists to reflect a complete and holistic orientation, the relationship of the achieved levels of knowledge, hypotheses and sound concepts with the previous development of scientific knowledge, which serves as the most important criterion for understanding continuity and novelty, demonstrating the foundations of political and legal culture by forming the foundation for the search for answers to philosophical, legal and socio-practical questions of the existence of mankind, society and the state. The study of the history of political and legal doctrines makes it possible to consolidate in doctrinal and normative acts a number of important values and guidelines that largely determine the new quality of the concept of the rule of law.

Today, historiography of the political and legal sphere of society is an important and key area of political and legal sciences and disciplines in general, since historiography has been given auxiliary importance for a long time as a legal discipline, focused on working with sources, highlighting the self-reflection of science, highlighting the emergence and change of ideas, theories and trends that determined the relevant forms of social practice, today it performs a completely different function ^[5].

The historiography of political and legal thought is important in determining the factors, grounds and conditions, since the presentation of the history of political and legal thought must be combined with the idea of types of development. There are still no studies of the theoretical legacy of the prominent scientist, philosopher, political scientist, and Marxist sociologist Nikos Poulanzas in the narrow horizons of French legal thought.

Nikos Poulanzas (1936-1979) was a sociologist and political scientist who held radical left–wing views and sought to show the theory of Marxism in a new way with the ideas of political sociology.

As rightly noted by scientists, Nikos Pulanzas has repeatedly addressed the topic of power and its main directions in his works, thus the relevance of the chosen topic is due to the fact that the topic of power, which has preserved all its main problematic subjects since the time of Plato and Aristotle (forms of power and their classifications, access to power and the functions of ruling persons, etc.) Having passed through medieval interpretations of the separation of secular and spiritual power and opposition to power and the people, it has developed in the modern period into universalist concepts of power as a social entity in the works of Nikos Poulanzas and into the postclassical idea of power as a universal social principle as a social relation ^[6].

Considering the political teachings of Nikos Poulanzas, one should pay attention to his biography, which defines his scientific legacy, positions and theory, representing a serious departure from classical Marxism and socialism. It is important that Nikos studied the basics of law in Greece, at the University of Athens, after studying he moved to France, where he defended his doctoral thesis in the philosophy of law. Scientist Nikos Poulanzas was a politician and party official of the United Democratic Left Party, which was banned in Greece. In France, Nikos Poulanzas was engaged in scientific activities and, while writing his doctoral dissertation, deeply studied the ideas of existential Marxism by philosophers and representatives of atheistic existentialism Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir ^{[7, p. 61]}.

The famous scientist, philosopher, political scientist and sociologist began his scientific activity as a student, Nikos Pulanzas was repressed for his participation in the youth socialist movement, in 1968 he published one of the first publications "Political power and social classes of the capitalist state", which later brought fame and popularity among fellow philosophers and political scientists. It is worth noting that in his writings Nikos began to criticize the totalitarian form of government in the Middle East and authoritarian statism in Western Europe. Thus, Nikos Poulanzas in his writings addresses the problems of Marxism and socialism, develops the problems of classes and class struggle among citizens of one state, thus, the scientist and philosopher departs from orthodox Marxism and gradually adheres to the evolution of left-wing Eurocommunism. The scientific legacy of Nikos Poulanzas is devoted to the renewal and rethinking of the theoretical and philosophical-legal ideas of the left movement, the search for a democratic path to socialism. One of the last positions of the author, which became his testament, were the words: "Either socialism will be democratic, or it will not exist at all" ^{[8, p. 75]}.

In his scientific works, Nikos Poulanzas made significant contributions to the theoretical positions of Marxism, he explored the theory of classes, criticizing the previously classical concepts of "class by itself." The author noted that social classes do not exist without internal class conflict. In his work "Social Classes under Modern Capitalism" (1974), the scientist Nikos Poulanzas turned to the political significance of globalizing capital, which contributed to the emergence of a new small bourgeoisie. In addition, in the work "The State, Power, Socialism" (1978), the author criticized the concept of Marxism and structuralism, Nikos Poulanzas argued that the state is a social one in which class relations develop, thus the autonomy and independence of the state is a function of the class struggle, since the state is at the center of the class struggle, while neither One class does not have full power over the state, but the latter must defend the interests of the ruling class. Thus, Nikos Poulanzas highlights the belonging of classes, as well as the role of the state in the legal regulation of relations and its interaction between different classes, in this regard, the independence of the state is determined by the content and intensity of the political struggle within the state ^[9].

Nikos Poulanzas' scientific legacy is devoted to the state structure and its form of government, so the author identifies the following areas of state development, firstly, the presence of a repressive element in law, pointing out that the law of the state has the property of organized public violence, and secondly, the function of law is to reproduce the subjects of law by representing their union as a people -nations. In addition, Pulantsas considered the law not as a tool of the ruling class, but as a method of organizing hegemony in the state, thus the scientist considered normative acts as a condensation of power relations.

Nikos Pulanzas, a scientist, philosopher and political scientist, has repeatedly emphasized in his scientific works that the role of the state is to represent and organize the long-term political interests of this power bloc. Thus, the state faced the task of ensuring the overall unity of the social formation by creating a balance of compromise between classes. Consequently, these political and state processes influenced the disorganization of the lower classes, i.e. this class was prevented from creating political organizations capable of overcoming the individualization resulting from the production process ^[10].

Analyzing the main views of the philosopher, political scientist and sociologist Poulanzas, it is worth noting that the scientist addressed the topic of establishing authoritarianism in the state, considering this political and state system as an intermediate phase on the path to totalitarianism. In particular, the scientist, investigating these processes, clarified that: "For those who want a more pleasant term, I call this form authoritarian statism" ^{[11, p. 203]}. Thus, according to the scientist, this political regime has the following properties:: state control in all spheres of public life, the destruction and termination of institutions of representative democracy, infringement of political rights and freedoms, etc. In addition, this regime is characterized by the fact that democracy in the state takes on an oligarchic form, which is not controlled by other classes within the state, against which these classes fought. According to a number of scientists, the political and legal thoughts of Poulanzas at that time were connected with his crisis state ^{[12, p. 150]}. We believe that the political and legal teachings of Nikos Poulanzas are largely determined by the fact that during the period of writing scientific papers there was a process of transformation of law, a change in the paradigm of the development of the world order and the dominant political elites, in this regard, the scientist believed that the political regime in the form of authoritarian statism is a consequence of the economic and social crisis in which the myth of the universal state arises prosperity. Nevertheless, according to Nikos Poulanzas, a political crisis is not reduced to an economic one, just as a state crisis is not reduced to a political crisis ^{[13, p. 206]}. It is worth agreeing with the scientist's position on the political processes under consideration, since the political crisis is considered as a transitional process in the socio-political processes of the state, while the crisis and a new transition to a state regime arise as a result of significant changes. As a result, the degree of organization of government systems decreases and the likelihood of a return to the previous stable state is low. Thus, analyzing the main works of Nikos Poulanzas, the scientist concluded that the state acts as the initiator of social relations, in which some classes dominate over others ^{[14, p. 36]}.

Nikos Poulanzas' key ideas are reflected in a number of his works: "Political Power and social Classes of the capitalist State", "The Problem of the Capitalist State", "Marxism and the Crisis of Society", "The Crisis of Dictatorships", "Classes in Modern Capitalism", "Political Power and social Classes", "The State, Power and Socialism", "Political power and social classes of the capitalist State" and a number of other works.

Thus, Nikos Poulanzas' political and legal thought represents a departure from classical Marxism and socialism, with special attention focused on: the political regime and its change; the political crisis and its consequences; the law and its properties. In the Russian science of philosophy of law, theory and history of state and law, scientists have repeatedly referred to the works of Nikos Palunzas, the author's teachings have not been fully investigated, but have been mentioned only in selected topics of scientific research on socialism and Marxism. Thus, the history of political and legal doctrines contributes to the study of individual provisions on the state and law, thereby forming the main conclusions on the development of individual provisions of the institutions of the state and society as a whole.