The Managerial Revolution: What is Happening in the World

by James Burnham

But to anticipate briefly: Though Russia did not move toward socialism, at the same time it did not move back to capitalism. This is a point which is of key significance for the problem of this book. All of those who predicted what would happen in Russia, friends and enemies, shared the assumption which I have already discussed in this chapter: that socialism is the “only alternative” to capitalism; from which it followed that Russia—since presumably it could not stay still—would either move toward socialism or back to the restoration of capitalism. Neither of these anticipated developments has taken place. All of the attempts to explain the present Russian setup as capitalist—of which there have recently been a number—or about to become capitalist have broken down miserably (no capitalist has any illusions on that score). Trotsky, otherwise the most brilliant of all analysts of Russia, to his death clung desperately to this “either … or” assumption, and in late years consequently became less and less able to explain sensibly or predict what happened. The only way out of the theoretical jam is to recognize that the assumption must be dropped, that socialism and capitalism are not the sole alternatives, that Russia’s motion has been toward neither capitalism nor socialism, but toward managerial society, the type of society now in the process of replacing capitalist society on a world scale.