The Dual State

Abstract

This text, first published in 1941, provides a comprehensive analysis of the rise and nature of National-Socialism, and is the only such analysis written from within Hitler’s Germany. Its central thesis is that two states co-existed in National-Socialist Germany—hence, Fraenkel’s invention of the concept of the dual state. This was comprised of a normative state (which protected the legal order as expressed in legislation, decisions of the courts, and decisions of administrative bodies) and a prerogative state (governed by the ruling party, and unrestrained by legal guarantees). The relationship and conflict between these states is analyzed through decisions of the German courts and the development of judicial practice. The book is divided into three parts. The first part describes the existing legal order. The second part attempts to show that the parallel structures within Germany radically affected German politics and society. The third part delves into the relationship between the dual Nazi state and German capitalism. It asks whether the rise of the dual state was a consequence of a crisis in capitalism. While this book is primarily a first-hand account and analysis of the dual state’s operation in National-Socialist Germany, it retains its vital relevance for the theory of democracy in the twenty-first century. This republication of the 1941 English edition includes both Fraenkel’s 1974 introduction to the German second edition, never before published in English, and a new introduction by Professor Jens Meierhenrich of the London School of Economics and Political Science that places the book in theoretical and historical context and assesses its lasting legacy.

Constitution-Making as a Technique of International Law: Reconsidering the Post-war Inheritance

“…161 He characterised the cartels, who had sought to free themselves from political interference, as merely 'organs' of the normative state: it was the courts and the National Socialist party that were its primary guardians. 162 Fraenkel accepted that, in general, the work of arming Germany and of expansionist war had served to enhance the safety of income from private property. 163 On his account, however, and remembering the 'necessity for decentralization of certain [economic] functions in any large-scale society with advanced technology', it was not industry that fuelled the prerogative state, but ultimately the prerogative state that needed private enterprise, and allowed for the normative state that sustained it.…”

Estado Dual en Colombia

“…En el espacio de análisis teórico para comprender fenómenos que se desligaban de la actuación unificada del Estado, se revisaron conceptos poco tratados en temas de Estados fallidos o Estados dobles. Autores como Ernst Fraenkel (2010) quien, desde la mirada histórica del nacionalsocialismo, propone una alternativa que denominó Prerogative State y Normative State, permitiendo establecer las diferencias que dan la parición a un Estado Dual.…”

“…Ernst Fraenkel (2010), plasma en un texto publicado por Oxford University en 1941, titulado The Dual State, el modo como el partido nazi desliga la unidad del Estado administrativo-burocrático planteado por Weber (2012), a un Estado de decisiones personalizadas, de vigencia ideológica y decadencia de derechos civiles, identificando esta división en dos momentos: The Prerogative State y The Normative State.…”

Conceptualización académica sobre el término de Inteligencia Estratégica y su aplicación en la toma de decisiones en Colombia

“…• 100 quien dio apertura a la Dirección Nacional de Inteligencia -DNI y la hoy conocida Ley 1621 de 2013. Según los autores Fraenkel et al, (2017) y Bobbio et al, (2013), esta decisión gubernamental surge a partir de las dualidades y novedades de politización, las cuales llevaron al incumplimiento de las funciones de inteligencia que le confiere la nación ante hechos de protección, seguridad y defensa.…”