Rise of the Managers

Abstract

This chapter analyzes why the Royal Society of Arts never had a permanent function but was instead meant to find new things to improve. It discusses the utilitarian-supported reforms of the late nineteenth century that laid the foundations for state systems of education, health, and welfare to grow in size and complexity. It also points out changes in the membership of the Society that reflects the growth of both government and corporate bureaucracies. The chapter describes Society's new members in the mid-twentieth century that were increasingly drawn from the civil service, middle management, and chairmen or directors of companies. It also conveys how the Society reacted to the trend of bureaucracies by increasingly appealing to large firms for the sponsorship of its industrial design bursaries.