ABSTRACT
This article examines the development of the mainstream Marxist approach to the development of the modern state form and its relation to the concept of justice. The first part of the article discusses Marx’s critique of Hegel. Marx opposes Hegel’s idealism and argues that it is civil society, defined as the social activity of human beings, that leads to the emergence of the modern state and not vice versa. Again, Marx accepts the bureaucracy, which Hegel calls the ‘universal class’, as the so-called universal class. According to Marx, Hegel’s relationship between concept and history must be reversed. The article then explores Marx’s encounter with Smith’s classical political economy and how Marx’s theory is derived from Smith’s theory. The article concludes by arguing that the distinction between state and society is used within Marxist theory to describe the changes that occurred during the period of the absolutist state, the period preceding the emancipation of capitalist society, and by comparing the classical Marxist depiction of absolutism with Carl Schmitt’s analysis of absolutist state sovereignty based on Hobbes’ approach, ultimately pointing to the emergence of capitalism as the moment when state and society were reunited under the rule of the bourgeoisie rather than separated.