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There is no one force, no group, and no class that is the preserver of liberty. Liberty is preserved by those who are against the existing chief power. Oppositions which do not express genuine social forces are as trivial, in relation to entrenched power, as the old court jesters.

— James Burnham James Burnham (1987)

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More quotes by James Burnham

To say that the ruling class is the managers is almost the same thing as to say that it is the state bureaucracy', he writes.

p. 57; Cited in Fred Riggs (1970)

Ideologies capable of influencing and winning the acceptance of great masses of people are an indispensable verbal cement holding the fabric of any given type of society together.

p. 25; as cited in: Thomas Diefenbach (2009)

The Russian revolution was not a socialist revolution... but a managerial revolution... Today Russia is the nation which has, in its structural aspects, advanced furthest along the managerial road.

The faction fight in the Socialist Workers Party, its conclusion, and the recent formation of the Workers Party have been in my own case, the unavoidable occasion for the review of my own theoretical and political beliefs. This review has shown me that by no stretching of terminology can I regard myself, or permit others to regard me, as a Marxist.

Marcel van der Linden (2007)

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: James Burnham (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.