The Rise of Managerial Power: How Experts Came to Rule Modern States

How did bureaucrats, consultants, and technocrats become central political actors in the modern world—and what was lost when expertise began to replace democracy?

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In the decades following the Second World War, liberal democracy appeared to have resolved one of its oldest dilemmas: how to govern complex societies without descending into chaos or authoritarianism. The answer, increasingly, was management. As states expanded their welfare systems, regulated globalizing economies, and confronted technological change, political decision-making was gradually transferred from elected representatives to experts—economists, planners, administrators, and consultants—who claimed neutrality, efficiency, and scientific authority.

Today, this managerial logic dominates governance across much of the world. Central banks operate independently of voters. Policy decisions are outsourced to consultants and advisory firms. International institutions prescribe “best practices” to sovereign states. While elections still occur, many of the most consequential decisions affecting daily life are made far from public scrutiny. This raises a fundamental question: how did expertise come to replace democratic participation as the primary source of political legitimacy?

This essay examines the rise of managerial power as a historical process rather than a sudden takeover. Drawing on James Burnham’s The Managerial Revolution and Michel Foucault’s concept of governmentality, I argue that technocratic rule emerged not because democracy collapsed, but because it was deemed insufficient for governing modern complexity. Yet in solving one problem, managerial governance created another: a growing distance between those who rule and those who are ruled.

Burnham and the Managerial Class

Writing during World War II, James Burnham argued that neither capitalism nor socialism would define the future political order. Instead, he predicted the rise of a “managerial class”—technical experts who controlled production, administration, and organization regardless of formal ownership. Power, Burnham suggested, would no longer rest with capitalists or elected officials, but with those who possessed specialized knowledge and operational control.

Burnham’s insight proved prescient. Throughout the twentieth century, governments increasingly relied on economists to manage inflation, engineers to plan infrastructure, and administrators to run expanding bureaucracies. In this system, legitimacy derived not from popular consent, but from competence. Decisions were justified as “necessary,” “evidence-based,” or “without alternative,” insulating them from democratic debate.

Crucially, Burnham did not portray managerial power as overtly authoritarian. On the contrary, it often presented itself as apolitical. By framing decisions as technical rather than ideological, managers reduced political conflict while simultaneously narrowing the space for public participation. Democracy remained intact in form, but diminished in substance.

Foucault and the Governance of Populations

Where Burnham focused on class and control, Michel Foucault approached managerial power through the lens of knowledge. In his lectures on governmentality, Foucault argued that modern states govern less through coercion and more through administration—by measuring, categorizing, and optimizing populations. From public health systems to economic forecasting models, expertise became a tool for shaping behavior. Citizens were no longer simply ruled; they were managed. Risk assessments, cost-benefit analyses, and performance indicators transformed political questions into technical problems with seemingly objective solutions. This shift had profound implications. When governance is framed as optimization rather than choice, disagreement becomes irrational. Opposition is dismissed as uninformed. Politics gives way to administration, and democratic deliberation is replaced by expert consensus. In this sense, managerial power does not eliminate democracy outright—it renders it increasingly irrelevant.

Crisis, Complexity, and the Appeal of Technocracy

The expansion of managerial governance was not accidental. It accelerated during moments of crisis: economic depressions, wars, decolonization, and globalization. Faced with instability, governments turned to experts who promised order and predictability. The rise of international financial institutions, development agencies, and global consulting firms reflected this demand for technical solutions to political problems. Yet this reliance on expertise came at a cost. As decision-making moved further from voters, public trust eroded. Citizens were told that policies were unavoidable, even when they produced inequality or social dislocation. The result has been a paradox: technocracy was meant to stabilize democracy, but has instead contributed to its delegitimization. Populist movements across the world can be understood, in part, as reactions against managerial rule. They do not merely reject specific policies; they challenge the authority of experts themselves. Whether this backlash strengthens democracy or accelerates authoritarianism remains an open question.

Conclusion

The rise of managerial power is not a conspiracy, nor is it a historical accident. It is the product of modern states grappling with complexity through expertise. Burnham helps us see how control shifted to managers; Foucault reveals how knowledge became a mechanism of governance. Together, they illuminate a central tension of the modern world: can democracy survive when expertise becomes the primary source of authority? History offers no easy answer. What is clear, however, is that when politics is reduced to management, citizens are reduced to variables. The challenge for the future is not to reject expertise, but to reintegrate it into democratic life—before governance becomes something that happens to people rather than with them.

References:

Burnham, James. The Managerial Revolution: What is Happening in the World. Martino Publishing, 1941.

Foucault, Michel. Security, Territory, Population: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1977–78. Palgrave Macmillan, 2007.

Weber, Max. Economy and Society. University of California Press, 1978.

Scott, James C. Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed. Yale University Press, 1998.

Fukuyama, Francis. Political Order and Political Decay: From the Industrial Revolution to the Globalization of Democracy. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2014.