![]() ![]() Thus Karl-Dietrich Bracher, while consistently and vehemently rejecting the notion of Nazism as a branch of generic fascism, on the grounds that the uniqueness of Nazism lay in the person and ideology of Hitler and that in the end only Hitler’s Weltanschauung mattered, is nevertheless adamant that techniques of rule point to a basic similarity with the Soviet state. Insofar as any theoretical position is adopted, this is almost invariably dependent upon the concept of totalitarianism. Correspondingly, economic developments in the Third Reich are seldom accorded a leading importance, or even systematically explored. In this perspective, the role of leading actors on the political stage develops an extreme significance, so that in the case of the Third Reich, Hitler becomes the central focus of attention, while explanations of the character of Nazi rule revolve around the Führer’s intentions, ideological convictions and dictatorial control. There is generally an implicit assumption that the political sphere in any system enjoys a primacy over economics, that state executive power is autonomous, and that there is normally a clear divide between the public and private domains. One characteristic feature is their paucity of theorizing about the nature of the state, about its relationship to economics, or the autonomy of the political executive. Under the rubric of ‘liberal’ approaches, I am, of course, subsuming a number of interpretations which are often at odds with one another-sometimes quite sharply so-and yet display a common basic framework. footnote 3 I will therefore deal only in brief terms with them here, with specific reference to their explanations of the exceptional character of Nazi rule. I have explored these approaches elsewhere, and examined their historiography and relative merits in accounting for different aspects of Nazi rule. We can distinguish three broad groups of interpretative approaches, which we shall term liberal, Marxist and structuralist (or functionalist). ![]() The nature, degree and causes of its exceptionality remain, nevertheless, extremely contentious issues. On a more sophisticated, theoretical plane, the exceptionality of the Nazi state has from the earliest days down to the present preoccupied analysts from a variety of Marxist persuasions and has also been a basic premise of most non-Marxist theorizing. The most superficial, commonsensical notion would suggest that a state which could plunge the world into war and murder six million Jews was no ordinary state. Whatever perspective is adopted, the Nazi State was plainly an exceptional type of state. And theoretically, as well as in actual reality, it seems important to make such a distinction. But, useful as Mann’s two-dimensional model is, it does not distinguish between types of ‘exceptional state’. A state based upon despotic power, under modern capitalism, can therefore be regarded as an ‘exceptional state’. footnote 2 This is usually well developed in modern capitalist democracies, but where the capacity is weak, or fails, the consequence is the resort to ‘despotic power’, actions of the state elite undertaken ‘without routine institutionalized negotiation with civil society groups’. footnote 1 I accept, too, that the ability to sustain such a state would depend upon what Michael Mann has called its ‘infrastructural power’-‘the capacity of the state to penetrate civil society and implement logistically political decisions throughout the realm’. (where) the use of force is regarded as legitimate only so far as it is either permitted by the state or prescribed by it’, and to see this as the basis for the ‘normal’ state, residing in ‘legal’ authority executed through a rational-bureaucratic framework. a compulsory organization with a territorial basis. over all action taking place in the area of its jurisdiction. footnote * My own starting assumption is to accept Max Weber’s concept of the state: ‘an administrative and legal order subject to change by legislation. A ny discussion of the character of an ‘exceptional’ state must presumably begin with a notion of what categorizes a state as ‘normal’. ![]()
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