“Real democracy” is a future social plan proposed by Marx to solve Hegel’s separation of civil society and political state. Marx attempted to overcome the abstraction presented by Hegel’s political state’s universality through “real democracy”. In “real democracy”, the state is not an abstract political form external to humans, but a way of human existence. “Real democracy” reflects Marx’s criticism and transcendence of the entire modern political state. “Real democracy” is an important ideological link for Marx to break through the limits of political emancipation. However, due to the fact that Marx had not yet delved into civil society and carried out political and economic criticism at this time, “real democracy” still had limitations and could not complete the task of planning for future society within the political state. But the sprouting of communism embodied in “real democracy” had a profound impact on Marx's later communist ideology.

　　Editor: Zhong Yao  Wei Xiaoxue

　　From: Studies on Marxist Theory.2024.No.3.