The Managerial Revolution

James Burnham theorizes about the future of world capitalism from the way it developed between the two world wars. Starting from what he calls a historical law, that every sizeable social and economic group strives to improve its position of power and privilege, he weighs whether capitalism is permanent, bound to collapse into socialism, or turning into a new non-socialist form. He agrees with Marxists that capitalists will lose the class struggle, but argues the winner will be a managerial class of executives, engineers and administrators who actually control production and will seize power through state ownership. Burnham finds common features in the New Deal United States, Stalin's Russia and Nazi Germany.

Marc Andreessen included it in a group of books that, in his words, together give the best account of how today's society and politics are structured.