During the Rheinische Zeitung period, Marx, from a radical republican standpoint, uncompromisingly demanded a rational politics grounded in universal democracy, and accordingly called for the unity of the people’s will and intelligence in the political process. However, when faced with the question of how such a unity might be achieved under actual political conditions, he could neither accept the premodern solutions offered by Aristotle and Rousseau, nor endorse Hegel’s non-democratic alternative. At the same time, he lacked a viable practical proposal to overcome the persistent division of humanity caused by material life. As a result, he could only abstractly envision a true political life capable of transcending and regulating the material sphere. This impasse reveals not only a fundamental trilemma at the heart of modern republicanism, but also foreshadows Marx’s eventual break with republicanism in favor of communism—for genuine democracy, in his view, would only become possible on the basis of a radically transformed material life. 

　　Editor: Zhong Yao  Deng Panyi 

　　From: Social Sciences in China. 2025. No.6.