The Managerial Revolution: What is Happening in the World

by James Burnham

Nevertheless, it may still turn out that the new form of economy will be called “socialist.” In those nations—Russia and Germany—which have advanced furthest toward the new economy, “socialism” or “national socialism” is the term ordinarily used. The motivation for this terminology is not, naturally, the wish for scientific clarity but just the opposite. The word “socialism” is used for ideological purposes in order to manipulate the favorable mass emotions attached to the historic socialist ideal of a free, classless, and international society and to hide the fact that the managerial economy is in actuality the basis for a new kind of exploiting, class society. If the new rulers continue their present verbal usage, a book like this one is not going to change the linguistic outcome. For scientific purposes, however, the necessity remains to distinguish clearly the new economy (whatever it may be called) from the projected economy which was part of the traditional socialist ideal.