The Managerial Revolution: What is Happening in the World

by James Burnham

In conditions which are now normal, an increase in income for the managers or even the executives of Group 2 means so much the less for Group 3 (the financiers) and Group 4 (the stockholders.) Even more apparently, the relations of control over the operations of the instruments of production raise conflicts, since the sort of operation most favorable to one group (expanding or contracting production, for example) very often is not that most favorable to another. And, in general, there is a source of permanent conflict: the managers proper receive far less reward (money) than the executives and especially the finance-capitalists, who get by far the greatest benefits. From the point of view of the manager group, especially as economic conditions progressively decay, the reward allotted to the finance-capitalists seems inordinate and unjustified, all the more so because, as the managers see it more and more clearly, the finance-capitalists are not performing any function necessary to the process of production.