The Managerial Revolution: What is Happening in the World

by James Burnham

We have defined “ruling class” as consisting of the group of persons which has (as a matter of fact, not necessarily of law or words or theory), as against the rest of the population, a special degree of control over access to the instruments of production and preferential treatment in the distribution of the products of those instruments. In many societies, the members of the ruling class in question have also, in their own persons, administered the state: that is, have been the governing officials in the state apparatus. In feudal society, for example, this was usually the case. But it has not always been the case. In some societies, the state has been administered, its chief offices have been occupied, by persons who were not themselves members of the ruling class, or rather who were distinctly subordinate members of the ruling class. This has been the situation most of the time in capitalist society. As we have defined “ruling class,” there is no doubt at all that usually the chief members of the ruling class were not to be found in high governmental office. The chief members were the great industrialists and financiers.