The Managerial Elite: Dr. James Burnham’s Vision of Modern Power

Dr. James Burnham, a towering figure in 20th-century political thought, offered a vision of society that stripped away the comforting myths of democracy and replaced them with a cold, “scientific” analysis of power. His political evolution—from a leading Trotskyist intellectual to the “number one intellectual influence” at National Review—was guided by a singular, unwavering empiricism: the belief that the world is ruled not by ideals, but by those who control the levers of production and administration.The Rise of the Managerial ClassBurnham’s most famous contribution, detailed in The Managerial Revolution (1941), posited that both traditional capitalism and the dream of socialism were dead. Instead, he saw the emergence of a new ruling class: the managers. These were the technocrats, bureaucrats, and executives who possessed the specialized knowledge required jameskburnhamdds to run complex modern industries and state agencies. Unlike the old capitalists, these managers did not necessarily “own” the means of production through private property; rather, they controlled them through their positions within massive, increasingly centralized organizations.The Science of PowerIn his subsequent work, The Machiavellians (1943), Burnham refined this into a “science of power”. Drawing from thinkers like Gaetano Mosca and Vilfredo Pareto, he argued that all societies are inevitably ruled by an organized minority, or elite. He famously declared that “democracy, in the sense of self-government, is impossible”. For Burnham, political liberty does not come from the “will of the people” but from the existence of a genuine opposition that can check and balance the power of the ruling elite.Geopolitics and the Cold WarBurnham’s vision extended to the global stage, where he predicted the rise of “super-states” that would dominate the world. As a strategist, he was a staunch “Cold Warrior” who rejected the Truman administration’s policy of containment as too passive. Instead, he advocated for the “rollback” of communism, believing that the Soviet Union was an expansionist “managerial” empire that had to be actively undermined.A Legacy of RealismThough some of his specific predictions—such as an Axis victory in WWII—were incorrect, Burnham’s core insights into managerialism and the new class remain startlingly relevant. He viewed ideologies (like liberalism or socialism) as “derivations”—verbal masks that disguise the non-logical, power-seeking actions of the elite. For Burnham, the only way to truly understand politics was to discard all sentimentality and focus on the “effectual truth” of who holds power and why.Would you like to explore how Burnham’s managerial thesis compares to modern critiques of the “administrative state” or technocracy?