Dual state (model)

The dual state is a model in which the functioning of a state is divided into a normative state, which operates according to set rules and regulations, and a prerogative state, "which exercises unlimited arbitrariness and violence unchecked by any legal guarantees". The term was coined by Ernst Fraenkel to describe the functioning of the Nazi state, and especially law in Nazi Germany, which he described in his 1941 book The Dual State: A Contribution to the Theory of Dictatorship.

Although it was originally intended as an analysis of authoritarian states, some elements of the prerogative state are present in democracies. The model has also been applied to other states, including Israel, the United States, South Africa, Fascist Italy, 21st-century China, Russia, Lebanon, and post-2015 Turkey.

United States

In 2025, amid changes in the way the U.S. government operated during the first year of Donald Trump's second term, some began to argue that the United States was beginning to resemble a dual state. The idea received increased attention after Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson cited The Dual State in a dissenting opinion on the Trump v. CASA case.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Fraenkel 2018, p. 17.
  2. ↑ Markovits, Inga (2006). "Transitions to Constitutional Democracies: The German Democratic Republic". The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. 603 (1): 140–154. doi:10.1177/0002716205282408. S2CID 154981020.
  3. ↑ Suntrup, Jan Christoph (2020). "Between prerogative power and legality – reading Ernst Fraenkel's The Dual State as an analytical tool for present authoritarian rule". Jurisprudence. 11 (3): 335–359. doi:10.1080/20403313.2020.1734337. S2CID 216447975.
  4. ↑ Schotel, Bas (2021). "Administrative Law as a Dual State. Authoritarian Elements of Administrative Law". Hague Journal on the Rule of Law. 13 (1): 195–222. doi:10.1007/s40803-021-00156-4. hdl:11245.1/b51be874-c74f-48f6-8adc-70e9ba731e83. ISSN 1876-4053. S2CID 234754461.
  5. ↑ Ben-Natan, Smadar (2021). "The dual penal empire: Emergency powers and military courts in Palestine/Israel and beyond". Punishment & Society. 23 (5): 741–763. doi:10.1177/14624745211040311.
  6. ↑ Mackert, Jürgen (2021). "Introduction: A 'master-race democracy': Myths and lies of Western liberal civilization". The Condition of Democracy. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-003-15838-7.
  7. ↑ Dayan, Hilla (2022). "Israel/Palestine: Authoritarian Practices in the Context of a Dual State Crisis". New Authoritarian Practices in the Middle East and North Africa. Edinburgh University Press. pp. 131–151. ISBN 978-1-4744-8943-0.
  8. ↑ Mehozay, Yoav (2016). Between the Rule of Law and States of Emergency: The Fluid Jurisprudence of the Israeli Regime. State University of New York Press. ISBN 978-1-4384-6340-7.
  9. ↑ Tushnet, Mark (2022). "The Dual State in the United States: The Case of Lynching and Legal Lynchings". The Law & Ethics of Human Rights. 16 (1): 41–59. doi:10.1515/lehr-2022-2003. ISSN 1938-2545. S2CID 250360161.
  10. 1 2 Huq, Aziz (2025-03-23). "America Is Watching the Rise of a Dual State". The Atlantic. ISSN 2151-9463. Retrieved 2026-01-18.
  11. ↑ Saito, Natsu Taylor (2007). From Chinese Exclusion to Guantánamo Bay: Plenary Power and the Prerogative State. University Press of Colorado. ISBN 978-0-87081-851-6.
  12. 1 2 Levy, Pema. "The "dual state" theory was invented to describe Nazis. The Supreme Court could take us there". Mother Jones. Retrieved 2026-01-18.
  13. ↑ Meierhenrich, Jens (2008). The Legacies of Law: Long-Run Consequences of Legal Development in South Africa, 1652–2000. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-139-47517-4.
  14. ↑ Costa, Pietro (2022). "The Fascist Regime between 'Law' and 'Politics': A Case of 'Dual State'?". Giornale di Storia Costituzionale. 43: 93.
  15. ↑ Pils, Eva (2014). China's Human Rights Lawyers: Advocacy and Resistance. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-134-45068-8.
  16. ↑ Fu, Hualing (2022). "Between the Prerogative and the Normative States: The Evolving Power to Detain in China's Political-Legal System". The Law & Ethics of Human Rights. 16 (1): 61–97. doi:10.1515/lehr-2022-2006. ISSN 1938-2545. S2CID 250360175.
  17. ↑ Sakwa, Richard (2010). "The revenge of the Caucasus: Chechenization and the dual state in Russia". Nationalities Papers. 38 (5): 601–622. doi:10.1080/00905992.2010.498468. S2CID 154320723.
  18. ↑ Sakwa, Richard (2010). The Crisis of Russian Democracy: The Dual State, Factionalism and the Medvedev Succession. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-76842-9.
  19. ↑ Sakwa, Richard (2010). "The Dual State in Russia". Post-Soviet Affairs. 26 (3): 185–206. doi:10.2747/1060-586X.26.3.185. S2CID 144025460.
  20. ↑ Laḥḥām, Wisām al- (2024). Pacte national et décision souveraine: Liban de 1920 à nos jours. Paris: Geuthner. pp. 284–285. ISBN 978-2-7053-4132-9.
  21. ↑ Tekin, Serdar (2022-06-30). "The Dual State in Turkey". European Journal of Turkish Studies. Social Sciences on Contemporary Turkey (34). doi:10.4000/ejts.8000. ISSN 1773-0546.
  22. ↑ Krumm, Thomas (2024-03-01). "A Dual State in Turkey?". Zeitschrift für Vergleichende Politikwissenschaft. 18 (1): 37–57. doi:10.1007/s12286-024-00597-9. ISSN 1865-2654.
  23. ↑ Lithwick, Dahlia (2025-07-09). "The Supreme Court's Liberals Have an Impossible Task. One of Them Is Charting the Way". Slate. ISSN 1091-2339. Retrieved 2026-01-18.
  24. ↑ Pilkington, Ed (2025-10-04). "Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson is trying to warn us about something. Are we listening?". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2026-01-18.

Further reading