Beware the “dual state”: How democracies die not with a bang, but by slowly creating lawless zones where rights can vanish. A German-Jewish man's 1938 warning parallels with what's happening in the USA right now – freedom erodes quietly, one exception at a time.

#Democracy #HistoricalLessons #USA #trump #Nazi

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2025/05/trump-executive-order-lawlessness-constitutional-crisis/682112/

America Is Watching the Rise of a Dual State

For most people, the courts will continue to operate as usual—until they don’t.

The Atlantic

@els76uk

“…a lawless #dictatorship does not arise simply by snuffing out the ordinary legal system of rules, procedures, and precedents. To the contrary, that system—which he called the “normative state”—remains in place while dictatorial power spreads across society.”

1/4

#Fascism #Authoritarianism #ruleoflaw #democracy #dictatorship

@els76uk

“The list of measures purpose-built to cleave off a domain in which the law does not apply grows by the day: the pardons that bless & invite insurrectionary violence; the purges of career lawyers at the Justice Department and in the Southern District of New York, inspectors general across the government, & senior FBI agents; the attorney general’s command that lawyers obey the president over their own understanding of the Constitution; the appointment of people …. (cont.)
2/4

@els76uk

(Cont.) “… such as Kash Patel and Dan Bongino, who seem to view their loyalty to the president as more compelling than their constitutional oath; the president’s declaration that he and the attorney general are the sole authoritative interpreters of federal law for the executive branch; the transformation of ordinary spending responsibilities into discretionary tools to punish partisan foes; the stripping of security clearances from perceived enemies & opponents; “(cont)

3/4

@els76uk

(cont.) “…the threat of criminal prosecutions for speech deemed unfavorable by the president; and the verbal attacks on judges for enforcing the law.”

“The courts, unlike the legislature, remain useful to an autocrat in a dual state.”

4/4

@els76uk

The Dual State: Contribution to the Theory of Dictatorship by Ernst Fraenkel

#dictatorship #fascism
#book #nonfiction

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3775236

The Dual State

An unsparing analysis of the legal principles and const…

Goodreads
@BohemianPeasant thanks. I found it to buy online (26.99€) but will go get it from my local library.