What’s the difference between tyranny and democracy?

The answer was embodied in a 1936 study of London, Paris, and Berlin that the New York City Charter Revision Commission asked the Institute of Public Administration to undertake. The aim was to look at those cities and see what ideas of governance New York might adopt.

The German capital was a special case with limited applicability here, it quickly became clear. As the report noted with masterful understatement:

“The National-Socialist revolution of 1933 has made changes of great importance in local government in Germany and at the same time has profoundly affected the government of Berlin…”

So take a look at these two charts from Luther Gulick’s files. First, Berlin’s government under Der Fuehrer in 1936.

Next, a diagram of New York City’s government under Mayor Fiorello H. LaGuardia in 1939.

Got it?