The Dual State

Dr. Fraenkel, who practised law in pre-Hitler Germany, finds that the Nazi régime consists, in fact, of two distinct states -- one "normative," the other "prerogative." In the first the administrative and judicial bureaucracy operate according to rules; in the second the Party, and more particularly the Gestapo, operate free of any ultimate legal restraint. The second, of course, possesses complete power arbitrarily to supersede the first at any or all points.