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The "managerial state" is a concept used in critiquing modern procedural democracy.[ambiguous] The concept is used largely, though not exclusively, in paleolibertarian, paleoconservative, and anarcho-capitalist critiques of late modern state power in Western democracies.[1][additional citation(s) needed] Theorists Samuel T. Francis and Paul Gottfried, developing ideas inspired by the analytical framework of James Burnham,[2] say this is an ongoing regime that remains in power, regardless of what political party holds a majority.[citation needed]
Variations on the concept include the therapeutic managerial state, welfare–warfare state,[3] administrative state,[4] and polite or soft totalitarianism.[5] There is significant overlap between the concepts of the managerial state and the deep state, with theorists of the managerial state additionally drawing from theories of political religion and the secularization of Christian concepts, namely Puritanism,[6][additional citation(s) needed] which they contend demand an overweening concern with government intervention in favor of social justice, unaccountable regulation of citizens' private lives, and both informally and formally enforced political correctness.[7][need quotation to verify][additional citation(s) needed]
Theorists of the managerial state claim this constellation of factors tends towards the efflux of totalitarianism, which they call soft totalitarianism[8] and engage in criticism of administrative law and rulemaking.[9]
Samuel T. Francis, following James Burnham, said that under this historical process, “law is replaced by administrative decree, federalism is replaced by executive autocracy, and a limited government replaced by an unlimited state.”[10] It acts in the name of abstract goals, such as freedom, equality, brotherhood or positive rights, and uses its claim of moral superiority, power of taxation and wealth redistribution to keep itself in power.
- ^ Beauchamp, Zack (December 14, 2022). "The 80-year-old book that explains Elon Musk and tech's new right-wing tilt". Vox. Retrieved December 15, 2022.
- ^ Burnham, The Managerial Revolution, passim; Burnham, The Machiavellians: defenders of freedom, pp. 41–109),
- ^ Matt Barganier, The Welfare-Warfare State, Old West Edition, AntiWar, June 28, 2005.
- ^ Hamburger, The Administrative Threat (Encounter Books): Introduction
- ^ Nicholas Strakon, Who we are; what we're up to: Introducing The Last Ditch, Dispatches from "The Last Ditch," at Thorn Walker, September 1994.
- ^ Gottfried, Multiculturalism and the Politics of Guilt: toward a secular theocracy, 161–63
- ^ Francis, Leviathan and its Enemies, 354ff, 602–19; see Gottfried infra
- ^ Welchman, ed. Religions of Politics/Politics of Religion (Springer), esp contributions by Champagne (ch 8) and Critchley and Welchman (ch 11); Gottfried, Multiculturalism and the Politics of Guilt: towards a secular theocracy, passim; Hackett Fischer, Albion's Seed ch 'The Puritan Exodus'
- ^ Hamburger, Is Administrative Law Legal?, pp x–xiv, 531–45
- ^ Sam Francis. Archived June 16, 2006, at the Wayback Machine