James Burnham

[Terrance]

James Burnham’s book, The Managerial Revolution, made a considerable
stir both in the United States and in this country at the time when it
was published, and its main thesis has been so much discussed that a
detailed exposition of it is hardly necessary. As shortly as I can
summarise it, the thesis is this:

           Capitalism is disappearing, but Socialism is not replacing
it. What is
     now arising is a new kind of planned, centralised society which
will be neither
     capitalist nor, in any accepted sense of the word, democratic. The
rulers of
     this new society will be the people who effectively control the
means of
     production: that is, business executives, technicians, bureaucrats
and soldiers,
     lumped together by Burnham, under the name of “managers”. These
people
     will eliminate the old capitalist class, crush the working class,
and so
     organise society that all power and economic privilege remain in
their own
     hands. Private property rights will be abolished, but common
ownership will
     not be established. The new “managerial” societies will not consist
of a
     patchwork of small, independent states, but of great super-states
grouped
     round the main industrial centres in Europe, Asia, and America.
These
     super-states will fight among themselves for possession of the
remaining
     uncaptured portions of the earth, but will probably be unable to
conquer one
     another completely. Internally, each society will be hierarchical,
with an
     aristocracy of talent at the top and a mass of semi-slaves at the
bottom.

SECOND THOUGHTS ON JAMES BURNHAM

George Orwell

http://orwell.ru/library/reviews/burnham/e/e_burnh.htm