Milovan Djilas Nova — Klasa.pdf

The New Class: A Critique of Communist Elites

He spent nearly a decade in prison—not for murder or theft, but for describing reality. The regime’s vicious response inadvertently proved his point: a true ruling class does not debate critics; it incarcerates them. Milovan Djilas Nova Klasa.pdf

Conclusion: The Heretic Was Right

Milovan Djilas died in 1995, having witnessed the fall of the very system he critiqued. He was never fully forgiven by the Left, nor fully embraced by the Right. Yet The New Class remains a chilling work of political anthropology. The New Class: A Critique of Communist Elites

: The book exposes the "ironic" gap between Communist egalitarian theory and the "refined tyranny" and "brutal exploitation" found in reality. Tyranny over the Mind He was never fully forgiven by the Left,

This is a profound revision. Orthodox Marxism held that class disappears when private ownership of productive forces is abolished. Djilas counters that ownership is less important than control. The state, under communism, becomes the sole proprietor. Those who administer the state—the party officials, directors, secret police, and military commanders—thus wield ownership power collectively. Hence, “the new class appropriates the national income not through direct ownership but through the monopoly of administration” (Djilas, 1957, p. 45).

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: