The Managerial Revolution: What is Happening in the World

by James Burnham

We are now in a position to understand the central historical meaning of the first two world wars of the twentieth century. We might put it, over-simplifying but not distorting, in this way: The war of 1914 was the last great war of capitalist society; the war of 1939 is the first great war of managerial society. Thus both wars are transitional in character, are wars of the transition period between capitalist and managerial society. In both wars we find both capitalist and managerial elements, with the former predominant in the war of 1914, the latter immensely increased in the war of 1939. This political characterization of the two wars correlates with and reinforces the conclusions we have reached in our economic analysis, and again motivates our selection of the year, 1914, as the beginning of the social transition to managerial society. We found that from the late Middle Ages until the first world war, the percentage of world economy under the control of capitalists and capitalist economic relations had continuously increased; but from that time on has, also continuously and at a growing speed, declined. Looked at politically, we may say that from the midst of the first world war came the first great abrupt jump toward managerial society—the Russian Revolution. That war and its aftermath (the “Versailles system”) gave the final proof that capitalist world politics could no longer work and were about to end.