Djilas posited that in communist societies, the means of production are not owned by the proletariat, but by a political monopoly . He defined the "New Class" as having the following characteristics:
The New Class helped legitimize dissident critiques across the Eastern bloc and influenced Cold War intellectual debates. It fed Western liberal and conservative thinking about communism while also inspiring noncommunist left critiques that sought democratic socialism. Djilas’s writings contributed directly to his political downfall and imprisonment, which underscored his claims about intolerance to internal critique. Milovan Djilas Nova Klasa.pdf
Why should a modern reader care about a 70-year-old Yugoslav critique? Djilas posited that in communist societies, the means
The PDF remains a living document because it answers a question Karl Marx could not: What happens if revolutionaries win, but become the exploiters? : The new class excludes all rival centers
: The new class excludes all rival centers of power, extending its control over every social relationship, including moral and philosophical views. Utopian Contradiction
Despite his total alienation from the Yugoslav regime, he never renounced his socialist ideals and maintained a belief that socialism could be achieved through reform within a democratic framework. This unwavering commitment to his core beliefs makes his critique both powerful and unique.
Upon its publication in the United States, "The New Class" was a bombshell. The Times Literary Supplement later ranked it as one of the 100 most influential books since World War II. It provided the intellectual framework for understanding communist societies not as socialist utopias but as new forms of bureaucratic tyranny. For a generation of anti-communist thinkers, it was a manifesto.