马克思的国家学说既不是一套“通往奴役的”理论而同自由原则相对立，也不是那种分有了自由理念之神圣性的、理想主义的学说；相反，它是一套在哲学上完成了对自由理念的批判因而更加现实的、同时在政治上完成了对资产阶级自由国家的批判因而更加彻底的自由制度方案。然而，马克思的国家观也不是一蹴而就的，它经历了复杂的生成过程。青年马克思曾一度沉浸于康德法哲学，沉浸于那种用形而上的自由理念来为形而下的现实世界建构理想国家方案的路径。当然，马克思毕竟不是康德的“忠实信徒”，作为黑格尔“这位大思想家的学生”，他始终汲取着黑格尔哲学中的现实性的要素。也正是这种复杂的矛盾构成了马克思思想演进的内在冲动。时至《莱茵报》后期，马克思遭遇了“物质利益难题”，他的国家观也发生了革命性的转向。从那以后，马克思开始立足于此岸的物质世界发掘国家的本质力量，而不再去追溯形而上的自由理念了。马克思成熟时期的国家学说可以被视为一个有机的体系，其中包含着对国家（以及那个曾经支配国家的自由理念）的三重批判：从最本质的维度而言，马克思将人的物质实践规定为整个人类社会得以存续的原动力，而法律、国家乃至一切意识形式都是实践的对象化产物。其次，从社会历史的维度而言，马克思又将阶级关系和阶级利益作为规定国家的本质力量。最后，马克思的批判具象化到了实存的资产阶级国家，在这里，“商品结构之谜”成为了国家之谜的源头。马克思所做的上述三重维度的批判，是一个从抽象到具体、从国家一般到资产阶级国家、从自由理念到资产阶级政治自由的有机体系，是他的国家学说的“灵魂”部分。但马克思的国家观不能只停留于“灵魂”，它还必须经历一个“道成肉身”的过程。马克思不仅在理论上对政治国家与自由理念做出了触及本质的批判，他还提出了一套扬弃自由国家的革命方案，一种“无国家的自由制度”。马克思不再把政治国家这一本质上同阶级的特殊性相关联的形式作为实现自由的载体，而是去找寻真正能够贯彻自由之普遍性的制度形态。这一全新的构想表现为从“无产阶级专政”到“自由人联合体”的宏大历史进程，而它们也在后续的“巴黎公社”和“国际工人协会”等实践斗争中找到了自己的“肉身”存在。
Marx’s theory of state is not opposed to the principle of freedom as The Road to Serfdom, nor is it under the idealistic freedom tradition of Western philosophy; on the contrary, it is a set of liberal institutional plans which have surpassed the idealistic freedom thus are more realistic, while at the same time surpassed the bourgeois freedom thus more thorough.However, Marx’s theory is not achieved overnight. In his early years in Berlin University, Marx was immersed in Kant’s philosophy of law, which uses the metaphysical freedom to construct an ideal state plan for the real world. Of course, Marx is not a faithful believer of Kant. As Hegel’s student, he has always absorbed the realistic elements in Hegel’s philosophy. In the late Rheinische Zeitung period, in encountering with the “difficulty of material interests”, Marx started to deviate from the metaphysical notion of law and to develop his own philosophy of law on a materialist basis.Marx’s theory of state in his mature period can be regarded as an organic system, which contains a triple criticism of the state: From the most essential dimension, the material practice is the motive force for the survival of human society, including law, state, and all forms of consciousness. Secondly, from the perspective of social history, Marx regards class relations as the essential force of the state. Finally, Marx’s critique has concentrated on the bourgeois state, where the commodity fetishism becomes the secret of state. This three-dimensional criticism is an organic system from abstraction to concreteness, and it is the “soul” of Marx’s theory of state.But Marx’s philosophy cannot stop at the “soul”. It must also propose a political plan as a process of “incarnation”. Marx constructed a free system without state, which means that the political state is no longer regarded as the carrier of universal freedom. This new concept is manifested in the grand historical process from proletarian dictatorship to combination of free people, and they have also found their own “body” in the subsequent Paris Commune and International Workers Association.
