The ‘Managerial Revolution’: The Origin and Growth of Managerial Capitalism (from the 1930s to the End of the 1970s)

Abstract

In the opinion of Rostow,1 countries that reach technological maturity (full and flexible command of science and technology and the capacity to expand the knowledge acquired from the traditional sectors that had previously borne the cost of economic advance to the new, more profitable sectors) can direct their socio-economic systems: a) either towards an aggressive policy aimed at consolidating the position of the nation at a world level; b) or towards a policy of social reforms designed to guarantee social security and to reduce working hours; or c) towards a policy that is favourable to the development of mass consumption ( economic well-being). These policies are, in a certain way, competing for the use of the intellectual and material resources available. The various nations, on reaching technological maturity, can achieve an adequate balance of these policies. History has demonstrated that such a balance varies at different times and in different places because of a series of interacting factors.