Nazi Germany operated less like a state than like a perpetually renegotiating gang

Evidence

Franz Neumann, op. cit., pp. 521 ff., is doubtful “whether Germany can be called a State. It is far more a gang where the leaders are perpetually compelled to agree after disagreements.” — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 2750

Categorization

• DEFINE: Neumann’s ‘gang’ characterization is a key competing framework in the totalitarianism-as-non-state debate; useful counterpoint to the sovereign-state model.
• XREF: connects to: The German pre-1945 state served industrial capital despite Junker staffing — Alex Callinicos, Against Postmodernism: A Marxist…, 188; Nazi imperialist expansion reconciled the Mittelstand to big business rather than challenging it — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination: A History…, 503