If you’re a political enthusiast who hasn’t been living under a rock over the past decade, there’s a strong likelihood you’ve stumbled upon the concept of the ‘managerialist’ or ‘managerial class’. But what does this actually mean?

Managerialism is a term first coined by American philosopher James Burnham in 1941 through the release of his book The Managerial Revolution, in which he prophesied the rise of a new class of managers to replace the entrepreneurial capitalists of the 19th Century.

Burnham essentially envisaged a society in which state control of enterprise is concealed from the public eye by the installation of a...