A: It is neither. Djilas remained a socialist critic. He did not advocate for capitalism; he advocated for a stateless, classless communism (anarchism). The book is hated by both Marxists (for attacking the party) and capitalists (for critiquing material accumulation).
This argument had a profound influence on later critiques of Soviet-style systems. It resonates in the modern concept of the the Soviet term for the elite list of key administrative positions filled by party appointees, which Djilas's work helped to illuminate for a Western audience. Furthermore, Djilas's analysis remained rooted in a Marxist framework ; his was an internal critique, aiming to salvage what he saw as the genuine ideals of socialism from what he perceived as a bureaucratic degeneration.
"The New Class" is Djilas’s most famous and consequential work. Its core argument is a powerful inversion of Marxist theory. Where Marx predicted that a proletarian revolution would abolish class distinctions, Djilas argued that it had merely created a new ruling class. Milovan Djilas Nova Klasa.pdf
Milovan Đilas's 1957 work, The New Class: An Analysis of the Communist System , argues that socialist revolutions created a "new class" of party bureaucrats who control nationalized property, replacing private ownership with a monopoly on power. This elite, as described by the former Yugoslav official, perpetuates a totalitarian system of exploitation rather than a worker's paradise, while stifling intellectual freedom and economic innovation. The full text is available via Internet Archive .
: He describes the Communist Party as the "simplest mechanism" of power, acting as the sole backbone of political, economic, and ideological life. Historical Significance SUMMARY OF THE NEW CLASS - by Milovan Djilas - CIA A: It is neither
Djilas broke down how this class maintained power without formal stock ownership:
"The system is... one of absolute political monopoly... The new class acquires its strength, its privileges, its supremacy, and its power from the party." The book is hated by both Marxists (for
Unlike Western capitalist critics, Đilas was a committed Marxist who critiqued the system from within its own ideological framework.