The Bureaucrat and the Shoe Salesman by Samuel T. Francisn”Among the many priests of Jove . . . all passednmuster that could hidenTheir sloth, avarice, and pride. “n—Bernard MandevillenThe Bureaucratization of the Worldnby Bruno Rizzi, New York: The FreenPress.nBruno Rizzi’s La Bureaucratisationndu Monde, first published in Parisnin 1939 and Part I of which is herentranslated by Adam Westoby into Englishnfor the first time, is the obscurenwork of an obscure man. A hanger-onnof both Communists and fascists, antraveling shoe salesman with little formalneducation or learning, and a vocalnanti-Semite who admired both AdolfnHitier and Leon Trotsky, Bruno Rizzinattracted virtually no serious attentionnduring most of his life and probablyndeserved less than he received. Hisnbook was impounded by French authoritiesnbecause of its racial slurs, andncopies of it have been rare ever since.nIts style and contents are not particularlynpleasing or original, althoughnsome passages are amusing because ofnthe invective that is customary innMarxist polemics. The book created anstir in Trotskyist and dissident Marxistncircles in the 1930’s, but it has hadnlittie influence on sociological thoughtnsince its suppression removed it fromnthe reach of most scholars. Why,nthen, has it been republished at all?nRizzi’s book acquired historicalnvalue because it played a part in thendispute within the Trotskyite movementnover the nature of the SovietnUnion under Stalin. It is Rizzi’s argumentnthat what was happening innWestern Europe, Russia, and thenUnited States in the 1930’s was indeednthe collapse of capitalism and bourgeoisnsociety. Unlike most Marxists,nhowever, he argued that what wasnsuperseding capitalism was not socialismnor the rule of the proletariat but antertium quid that he identified as “bureaucraticncollectivism,” a collectivistnSamuel T. Francis is the author ofnPower and History: The PoliticalnThought of James Burnham.neconomy ruled by an elite of statenbureaucrats, technicians, managers,nand functionaries. Rizzi regarded thisnsystem as the underlying unity beneathnthe apparent differences separating Soviet,nNazi, and New Deal governments,nand he predicted its ultimatenworldwide development.nRizzi’s thesis excited controversynamong Trotskyites because it directiynchallenged Trotsky’s continuing defensenof the Soviet Union as a “worker’snstate,” despite its “temporary” deformationnby Stalin, and because itnchallenged also the essential points ofnMarxist theory. If the capitalist era isnending and if it is being succeeded by annew form of class exploitation, thennthe Marxist prophecy of a classlessnsocial order is wrong. If a new form ofnexploitation arises that is not based onnproperty but on state power, then thenMarxist mode of analysis—its claimnnnthat property and social and economicnclass based on property are the sourcesnof exploitation—is also wrong. Trotskynand his circle might have ignorednRizzi’s challenges, but they could notnafford to do so. It was obvious to themnthat something strange was happeningnin the Soviet Union that neither Marxnnor Lenin could explain, and unlessnTrotsky could reconcile the rise ofnStalinism with some version of Marxistnpredictions and categories, then thenwhole body of Marxism would, in anmatter of time, be discarded.nTrotsky tried to meet Rizzi’s argumentsnbefore his murder in Augustn1940, but the controversy over Rizzi’snbook might have ended there. However,nin 1941 a former disciple of Trotsky,nsaid by some to be his “mostnbrilliant” follower, published a booknthat argued a thesis very similar to thatnof Rizzi and which influenced a generationnof intellectuals who, in the wakenof Stalin, were beginning to abandonnMarxism as a source of theory andnaction. This former disciple was JamesnBurnham, and the book he publishednwas The Managerial Revolution.nJANUARY 1987 / 27n