The Managerial Revolution: What is Happening in the World

by James Burnham

In the United States, sovereignty may still be chiefly located in Congress (together with the Supreme Court), it may still be the principal “lawmaking” body; but no one with eyes open during the past generation and especially the past decade will believe that its claims are today undisputed. “Laws” today in the United States, in fact most laws, are not being made any longer by Congress, but by the NLRB, SEC, ICC, AAA, TVA, FTC, FCC, the Office of Production Management (what a revealing title!), and the other leading “executive agencies.” How well lawyers know this to be the case! To keep up with contemporary law, it is the rulings and records of these agencies that they have chiefly to study. How plainly it is reflected in the enormous growth of the “executive branch” of the government—which is no longer simply executive but legislative and judicial as well—in comparison with that of the other two branches. Indeed, most of the important laws passed by Congress in recent years have been laws to give up some more of its sovereign powers to one or another agency largely outside of its control.