Dictatorship and Bureaucracy

Mandel argues that the survival and growth of the bureaucracy in the Soviet Union is proof that a classless socialist society does not exist. Indeed, the bureaucracy, which in many ways took the place of the ruling class, aggravates social division and splits the society into antagonistic sections. The book aims to offer new insights into the character of bureaucracy in the modern world by going on to demonstrate that this bureaucracy, though a form of despotism, is neither capital nor a new ruling class, as there are no significant private interest or owners. The parallels between the Soviet bureaucracy and the bureaucracies of mass working class organizations worldwide are then traced - both on political and on a socio-psychological level. Mandel intends to demonstrate the key role played by the failure to understand the social nature of bureaucracy.