The Managerial Revolution: What Is Happening in the World

"The Managerial Revolution" by James Burnham outlines a theory of an impending "managerial revolution," asserting a fundamental shift from capitalist to managerial society characterized by drastic institutional changes in economics, politics, and culture. This transition, already evident in nations like Russia and Germany, involves the displacement of capitalists as the ruling class by managers, who control production through their de facto command of the state. The author argues that neither capitalism nor socialism (as traditionally understood) will endure, with totalitarianism being a temporary, technologically enabled feature of this transition rather than its defining characteristic. The theory predicts the rise of three super-states (European, Asiatic, and American) as the new global political order, with managerial ideologies replacing capitalist ones, even if the general populace is largely unaware of the underlying historical forces at play.